Japanese startups pursue competitive advantage through real-world engagement and proprietary data over AI commoditization

At IVS2026 Kyoto, five business practitioners and three startup founders discussed how to sustain competitive advantage in an AI-saturated market. While surface-level products can be built and copied overnight, they argued that true differentiation lies in proprietary datasets, user experience, and brand recall—not AI alone. Three companies (find, CinemaLeap, and RicePlatform) exemplified this by combining AI with physical-world engagement: solving real-world problems like lost items, immersive VR experiences, and food commerce through hands-on operational rigor rather than pure algorithmic advantage.