NSK Ltd.
Corporate Communications Department
NSK Launches Generative AI-Powered Quality Control Application
- The AI application draws on 4,000 quality insight records, enabling employees to efficiently and intuitively engage with quality information.
- This is the first time that NSK has fully leveraged generative AI to develop an internal application, and it is already in use by 5,000 employees as of June 2025.
- With this application, NSK is further building on its world-class product quality and fostering speedier response to customer needs.
June 2025 — NSK Ltd. (Headquarters: Tokyo; President and CEO: Akitoshi Ichii) has begun operating an in-house application utilizing generative AI for referencing quality insights. This marks NSK’s first full-scale deployment of generative AI in an internal application.
The application is equipped with functions for visualizing accumulated historical quality insight data related to NSK products and generating AI summaries. It provides an environment in which employees from a wide range of fields involved with our products can quickly collect, understand, and utilize quality-related information. Through this initiative, NSK aims to deliver products with the highest reliability to customers with even greater speed and efficiency.
1. Application Overview
NSK has developed and launched an employee-oriented application that features graphical visualization of accumulated quality insight data and a generative AI-powered summarization function.
Previously, quality insight data at NSK was managed in dedicated databases or report formats. The data itself lacked standardization and was highly specialized, making it difficult to interpret causal relationships. In line with the company’s Mid-Term Plan, NSK has been advancing initiatives to further strengthen the quality and technology that underpin our competitiveness. As part of these efforts, we have been working to accumulate data related to quality insights and technical know-how arising during product development, process design, and validation in a structured, table-based format. With this new application, when employees need to investigate risk factors in product development, for example, the system provides graphical visualizations and AI-generated summaries. This design enables all employees—regardless of their familiarity with product- or industry-specific terminology—to easily access the necessary data and receive concise summaries, all within approximately 30 seconds.
Starting in June 2025, the application was made available to over 5,000 domestic employees, primarily in design, manufacturing, and quality assurance roles. Moving forward, NSK plans to expand access to employees across each stage of the product lifecycle, including sales and logistics. Through this initiative, NSK aims to further strengthen its quality management and contribute to delivering world-class customer-first quality.（Quality Management | NSK Global）
The application utilizes generative AI built within NSK’s dedicated environment, ensuring robust security against potential risks. In addition, NSK has established and implemented AI quality control measures and operational guidelines to address risks unique to generative AI, such as hallucinations*1.
*1 Hallucination: A phenomenon in which AI generates plausible but factually incorrect information, as if the AI were “hallucinating.”
2. Application Development
In 2023, NSK began internal utilization of generative AI, primarily for text generation and information retrieval purposes. The newly developed application marks NSK’s first instance of leveraging generative AI for specialized business operations and domains unique to the company.
Technical validation of generative AI for table-structured quality insight data commenced in October 2024. Employing agile development methodologies, NSK successfully completed the process from functional design to official deployment in approximately six months. The application features an intuitive user interface and innovative use of generative AI while maintaining data structure integrity, enabling all employees to efficiently access the information they require regardless of their individual experience or expertise. This initiative has resulted in the practical implementation of generative AI tailored to NSK’s internal business processes.
3. Future Outlook
Looking ahead, NSK plans to expand the use of this application beyond Japan to include overseas locations as well. To further enhance the value provided to customers, NSK will continue to improve the accuracy of AI-generated responses and the searchability of relevant data, as well as introduce additional features in line with employee needs, ensuring even faster and higher-quality product delivery.
NSK remains committed to accelerating the practical application of generative AI across various types of internal data. Guided by Mid-Term Management Plan | NSK Global , NSK will continue to strengthen management resources through digital technologies, aiming to contribute to the development of a sustainable society and to be a company that is both essential and trusted.
About NSK
NSK produced the first bearings in Japan in 1916 and over the past 100 years, it has supported the development of industries worldwide by creating various innovative products and technologies in bearings, automotive parts, and precision machinery. Since the early 1960s, the company has expanded overseas and now has operations in about 30 countries. It ranks third in the world in the field of bearings and leads the world in ball screws, electric power steering, and other products.