Mitsubishi Chemical Accelerates Application Discovery with AKCELI

In materials-driven industries, innovation rarely fails due to lack of technology. It fails because organizations struggle to see where existing materials can create new value fast enough, consistently enough, and beyond familiar markets.

For comprehensive chemical manufacturers with vast product portfolios, early-stage application and market exploration are both critical and time-consuming.  Outcomes often depend heavily on individual research skills, personal experience, and the limits of conventional search tools. The result: uneven quality, slow decision-making, and missed opportunities hiding in plain sight.

Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation faced this exact challenge. While actively advancing open innovation and the use of generative AI, the company recognized a gap between what general-purpose AI tools could deliver and what materials and R&D teams actually needed: clear and structured insights into which markets, supply chains, and partners could unlock the next wave of growth.

By introducing AKCELI, Mitsubishi Chemical redefined how early-stage exploration is done. What once required weeks of fragmented research can now be initiated in minutes, with consistent quality across teams.  This case study explores how “asking AKCELI first” has become a practical, repeatable process, helping the company uncover new applications, refresh fixed thinking, and turn existing materials into future opportunities.

This interview features Ms. Asuka Tsuneishi from Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation’s Frontier & Open Innovation Division, Global Research Partnership Department. Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation has been actively using the service since its initial launch. In this interview, we spoke in detail about the background to its adoption and the results achieved.

Could you tell us about your company’s business and your role, Ms. Tsuneishi?

As a comprehensive chemical manufacturer, our company provides a wide range of materials and solutions for various industries. In addition to our existing core products, one of our key missions is to develop new materials and to expand our existing technologies and materials into new fields.

The department I belong to supports research related to the development of new materials and the exploration of new applications for existing materials. Another important mission is promoting open innovation by co-creating new value through collaboration with external companies and research institutions. We are also actively advancing the use of generative AI and external databases, and the introduction of AKCELI was part of this broader initiative.

What challenges did you face before introducing AKCELI?

Before, proposing new themes, preliminary research and the exploration of new applications or markets for existing technologies suffered from inconsistencies in quality due to differences in individual research skills.  It was difficult to be confident about the comprehensiveness of the information, and the time required for research often slowed down decision-making.

Traditionally, early-stage research relied mainly on public information obtained through internet searches, internal and external databases, and patent or academic literature searches. These approaches had clear limitations. While outsourcing to external think tanks could provide more specialized analysis and broader insights into overseas markets or cutting-edge technologies, the cost and speed made it difficult to use such services on an ongoing basis.

While the use of generative AI was increasing internally, general-purpose AI tools tended to produce narrative-style answers.  They also struggled to provide the level of detail we needed as a materials manufacturer specifically, insights into which markets and which parts of the supply chain our materials could be applied to.

What prompted you to adopt AKCELI?

NineSigma suggested that our internal technologies could be leveraged for application exploration using AKCELI, and we began with a trial.

When we input our material information, AKCELI accurately understood the content and instantly presented ideas and perspectives that had not emerged through conventional searches.  Seeing this level of output, there was a strong internal reaction that “this is worth using more extensively,” which led to the decision to formally adopt the service.

What were the key factors in choosing AKCELI?

The first factor was that anyone can obtain results with a consistent level of accuracy, regardless of individual search skills.

By simply uploading material or product information (such as PDFs), AKCELI analyzes the context and automatically proposes applications and related companies.  There is no need to think through search keywords or adjust prompts. As a result, it helps close the gap between individual levels of creativity and research capability, raising the overall performance of the team.

The second factor was the quality of NineSigma’s support and the speed of improvement.  Regular meetings every two to three months allow us to share usage status and requests, which has been very reassuring and a key reason for continued use. Even within about six months, many of our requested improvements were implemented.

In what situations is AKCELI actually used?

We currently have a contract for five users, and multiple departments are using the service.

There are two main use cases.

First, business divisions upload material information directly from product catalogs or company websites and use AKCELI to explore potential applications. The supply chain information and related company lists included in the output are particularly valuable, as they help us evaluate where business opportunities may exist from upstream to downstream.

Second, AKCELI is used to support theme proposals in research departments.  When proposing new themes, the market environment analysis function is especially useful.  In developing new materials, identifying potential applications is critical, and AKCELI helps us discover use cases we would not have considered on our own.

Within our organization, a process is taking root where we say, “Let’s ask AKCELI first,” using it as a kind of sounding board for ideas.

How is the usability and user experience?

It’s very simple, and the fact that results are available immediately is a major advantage.

Unlike general-purpose generative AI, there is no need to refine prompts or regenerate outputs multiple times. You input the information, and the results come back instantly, which creates a strong sense of reliability.

What changes or effects have you seen since introducing AKCELI?

The time required for application exploration and market environment analysis has been significantly reduced.

Previously, there were variations in research scope and accuracy depending on the individual, but AKCELI has helped standardize quality at a consistent level. Team members have commented that it saved time and helped uncover applications not thought of before.

We also feel that it helps refresh ideas that tend to become fixed.

Even though team members change due to internal transfers, the sources of information and ways of thinking often remain the same, making it difficult to generate new ideas.  By using AKCELI, we are now exposed to domains and application ideas that had never surfaced internally, allowing us to add new perspectives to existing viewpoints.

We feel that combining human experience with AKCELI’s objective exploration has helped us build a well-balanced research framework as a team.

What are your future expectations for AKCELI?

We plan to continue building results within the departments currently using AKCELI and eventually expand its use company-wide.

As a comprehensive chemical manufacturer with an extremely wide range of products and materials, it is becoming increasingly important to respond flexibly and quickly to rapidly changing markets both in finding new ways to deploy existing materials and in determining which fields to target with new materials.  AKCELI has great potential to act as a driver for these efforts.

In an era where speed in product development is essential, tools that can provide a comprehensive directional overview in a short time are indispensable. We expect AKCELI to play that role.

At Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation, AKCELI is being used across a wide range of departments, from open innovation and R&D to business units, enabling efficient application exploration that is not dependent on individual skill levels. The habit of “asking AKCELI first” has become part of daily operations, helping transform the company’s vast technological assets into new value.

For companies and professionals interested in how AKCELI could transform their R&D or new business development processes, we invite you to apply for a one-on-one consultation. Our consultants will work with you from issue identification through to solution proposals.