The final installment of UPWARD’s series “Redesigning the Last Mile of Financial Sales” was published in the *Financial Economy News* (Part 5: Ryusuke Kaneki, Representative Director and CEO)

The fifth (and final) installment of UPWARD’s series “Redesigning the Last Mile of Financial Sales” was published on page 5 of the July 20, 2026, issue of the *Financial and Economic News*.In this series, members from various departments at UPWARD took turns writing each installment. For the final installment, UPWARD’s Representative Director and CEO, Ryusuke Kaneki, authored an article titled “Beyond Financial AX: Where Will Financial Institutions Be Fighting Their Main Battles in 10 Years?”

In the final episode, as generative AI spreads through the financial sector at an unprecedented pace, the program looks ahead to where the main battleground for financial institutions will lie in 10 years’ time, discussing the potential of in-person customer interactions and edge AI from the founder’s perspective.UPWARD is an AI agent specialized for field sales (outside sales) equipped with patented dynamic geofencing technology and AI-generated meeting minutes, supporting the transformation of sales operations across various industries, including financial institutions.
Please see this issue for details on the “last mile” of financial sales in the AI era and the future prospects for using AI to support field workers on the front lines.
* This article is from the print edition of the *Financial and Economic News* (no online version is available; it is published here with permission to reuse the print edition image).

Click here to read the article (page 5 of the *Financial and Economic News*, July 20, 2026)

About the Series

“Redesigning the Last Mile of Financial Sales” is a five-part series published by UPWARD that explores the transformation of sales operations at financial institutions. Each installment was written by a different member of UPWARD’s diverse team—including the Vice President, Data Scientist, Customer Success Lead, Director and CFO, and CEO—who discussed the “last mile” of financial sales from their respective areas of expertise.
Part 1 (Masaki Ishida, Vice President): https://upward.jp/info/20260609-1/
Part 2 (Richard Rodriguez, Data Scientist): https://upward.jp/info/20260615/
Part 3 (Hiromasa Shimono, Director and CFO): https://upward.jp/info/20260623/
Series Part 4 (Maiko Mihara, Executive Officer and Head of the Customer Success Division): https://upward.jp/info/20260714/

Introduction to the Authors of the 5th Edition

UPWARD Co., Ltd.
Representative Director and CEO
Ryusuke Kaneki

Born in Tokyo in 1973. An expert in GIS (Geographic Information Systems) and LBS (Location-Based Services), he founded UPWARD in 2016—a mobile SaaS solution for field sales that seamlessly integrates Salesforce with LBS.
The platform has been adopted by approximately 450 companies in Japan and overseas, primarily large enterprises, and currently holds the top market share in Japan as an “AI Agent Service” specialized for field sales.To date, the company has received numerous IT awards from organizations such as Salesforce, Microsoft, and Forbes JAPAN.

About the *Financial and Economic News*

The *Financial and Economic News* is a specialized newspaper published every Monday that focuses on finance and the economy. It provides in-depth coverage of developments across the financial sector, including regulatory activities by the Financial Services Agency, the Ministry of Finance, and the Bank of Japan, as well as news on megabanks, city banks, trust banks, regional banks, credit unions, labor credit banks, agricultural cooperatives, securities firms, life insurance companies, property and casualty insurance companies, credit card companies, consumer finance companies, and more.
Source: Kinkei Shimbun Official Website https://www.kinkei-press.co.jp/

▼Learn more about UPWARD

Product page for "UPWARD," an SFA/CRM system specialized for field sales: https://upward.jp/