Japanese companies face soaring PC costs and shift focus to AI literacy in workplace reform

The latest weekly roundup from ASCII.jp highlights how sharply business PC procurement costs have risen in Japan, while also showing a broader shift in corporate workplace reform towards people, skills and AI adaptation rather than technology for its own sake. (ascii.jp)

In a survey of 300 people involved in corporate PC purchasing, 77.7% said prices had risen over t...

he past year, and 71.0% described current prices as high relative to their budgets. The most common response was to delay purchases or refresh cycles, cited by 39.7% of respondents, followed by cutting unit volumes, rethinking specifications and keeping devices in service through repair. Only 21.7% said they were increasing procurement budgets. ASCII.jp linked much of the squeeze to memory costs, and TrendForce said conventional DRAM contract prices rose by about 60% quarter on quarter in Q2 2026, after an even steeper increase earlier in the year; the research firm also said AI server demand was still supporting prices in Q3, even as growth began to moderate. (ascii.jp)

The same roundup also points to a change in how companies think about workplace transformation. In a domestic survey by Gartner Japan, the most important measure was not the adoption of new tools, but strengthening digital and AI literacy education, cited by 34.2% of firms. That was followed by improving employee motivation and redesigning work so people can operate alongside AI. By contrast, “active use of technology”, once a near-permanent top choice, had slipped to ninth place. Companies also reported familiar barriers to staff development: lack of time because of day-to-day work, difficulty connecting training to actual job tasks, and unsuitable training methods. Gartner’s analysts said firms now need to redesign and strengthen digital and AI literacy training so employees can make effective use of AI. (ascii.jp)

Source: Noah Wire Services