LINE Yahoo Introduces "UPWARD," an AI Agent for Field Sales Representatives

UPWARD Inc. (Headquarters: Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo; Representative Director and CEO: Ryusuke Kaneki; hereinafter “UPWARD”) is pleased to announce that LINE Yahoo Corp. (Headquarters: Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo; Representative Director and CEO: Tsuyoshi Dezawa; hereinafter “LINE Yahoo”) has implemented “UPWARD,” an AI agent designed for field sales representatives.

LINE Yahoo plans to launch "LINE Restaurant Plus" and "LINE Beauty Plus," new services tailored to the food and beverage and beauty industries, starting in June 2026. To efficiently roll out these new services to over 800,000 restaurants and beauty salons across Japan, the company has implemented "UPWARD" as an AI-powered sales platform designed to digitize field sales activities and improve visit efficiency.

Expected Benefits of Implementing UPWARD 

Reliably digitizing visit records and business card information as "corporate assets"
In sales roles focused on acquiring new franchisees—which involve more than 10 visits a day, along with numerous phone calls and administrative tasks—entering sales data is often put on the back burner, which can hinder the ability to grasp on-site realities and formulate sales strategies.Using app "UPWARD" applog business card scanning (UPWARD AI Scan), critical field data is automatically stored in Salesforce as "corporate assets." This data is then utilized for strategic sales decision-making, such as identifying priority stores and analyzing the effectiveness of initiatives.

Maximizing Visit Efficiency with the Merchant Development Map
When developing new merchants, it is crucial to ensure a sufficient number of visits while minimizing travel time based on the negotiation status of each store. app mapping feature app "UPWARD" app displays stores that have not yet subscribed to the service on a map, color-coded by status (such as "Untapped" or "Under Consideration"). This allows sales representatives to plan their visits using the map as a starting point, preventing missed visits and overlapping schedules among team members. Additionally, it enables them to efficiently visit nearby stores during unexpected free time, contributing to an increase in the number of visits and maximizing results.

LINE Yahoo Corporation
Corporate Business Domain OA & MINI Business SBU Product Marketing Unit 2 Unit Head
Comment by Nobuo Kawashiro

As part of our efforts to support the digital transformation of businesses such as restaurants and beauty salons, we launched "LINE Restaurant Plus" and "LINE Beauty Plus" with the aim of providing new promotional and booking experiences based on "LINE Official Accounts." Our goal is to create better touchpoints between users and businesses and to streamline everyday decision-making.

Expanding our network of attractive partner merchants is critical to the growth of these services. To increase our reach to a diverse range of businesses and broaden the range of valuable options available to users, we must continuously recruit new partners—both in terms of quality and quantity.

On the other hand, in sales operations, there were challenges such as optimizing client visits, managing sales meeting histories, and sharing information within the team, creating a need to establish a more efficient and sophisticated sales structure.

We implemented UPWARD to address these challenges. We highly valued its ability to simultaneously visualize and streamline sales activities by integrating location data with CRM, as well as its intuitive design that makes it easy field sales representatives to use.

Going forward, we will continue to enhance the quality and productivity of our sales activities through the use of UPWARD, and strengthen our partnerships with even more franchisees. By continuing to provide valuable services to both users and stores, we will contribute to the further growth of store operators.

UPWARD" INNOVATES THE LAST MILE IN THE FIELD 

"UPWARD" is an AI-powered sales support service designed specifically for field sales and customer visits. It utilizes patented "Advanced Geofencing" technology logcustomer touchpointlog a variety of AI features log. It has been adopted by approximately 450 companies, primarily large enterprises that rely on face-to-face interactions with customers as their primary sales channel. 
Service Website: https://upward.jp/
"UPWARD" Brochure: https://upward.jp/downloads/allservicematerials/