Integrating AI and HR strategies to redesign foundations for people and organization management for the AI era while accelerating the recruitment of AI-Native talent
Mercari, Inc. (“Mercari”) announces that Shunya Kimura, Vice President, Chief Technology Officer (Japan Business), will assume the positions of Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO) and Chief AI Officer (CAIO) effective June 1, 2026.
As CHRO, CAIO, and CTO (Japan Business), Kimura will integrate AI and HR strategy under the newly established vision of “HR for an AI-Native Company.” He will accelerate Mercari’s transformation into an AI-Native company by redesigning the company’s foundations for people and organization management. This includes rethinking workstyles, decision-making and approval processes, organizational structures, and resource allocation with AI at the core.
Mercari will significantly strengthen the recruitment of AI-Native talent under this new structure.
Moving from individual AI adoption to the next phase of transforming foundations for people and organization management to be AI-Native as one with HR
In July 2025, Mercari Group declared its goal of transforming into an AI-Native company1 and set forth a group-wide policy of fundamentally transforming its organization and products with AI at the core. Subsequently, the company established the 100-member AI Task Force to promote the use of AI across all areas, including products, business processes, and the entire organization. The task force broke down business processes, visualized the potential for AI, identified key areas, and established the foundation for AI governance. As a result, the rate of AI usage among employees has reached 100%, and the development output per engineer increased by 1.9 times compared to the previous year2, indicating that use of AI at the individual level has taken root across the entire company.
1. “Back to Startup” and “AI-Native”—The Next Chapter in Mercari’s Journey at 12 Years (https://careers.mercari.com/en/mercan/articles/53674/)
2. FY2026.6 Q2 Financial Results Presentation, page 9 (https://pdf.irpocket.com/C4385/YpwX/xtlo/mn7s.pdf)
However, Mercari’s true goal lies beyond individual AI usage—the company aims to transform into an AI-Native company. As AI accelerates product development and business execution, Mercari must redesign its foundations for people and organization management to keep pace. This includes rethinking workstyles, decision-making and approval processes, organizational structures, and resource allocation with AI at the core. Without these changes, the company will be unable to fully capitalize on the speed and opportunities that AI enables.
Until now, AI strategy and HR strategy have been managed by separate leaders, resulting in a structural division between organizational transformation and the promotion of AI. To drive the integrated transformation of both domains, Kimura, who has led the AI Task Force and driven organizational and business transformation toward the realization of an AI-Native company as CTO, will now hold the position of CHRO, CAIO. As CAIO, he will continue to promote the evolution of Mercari’s businesses and products leveraging AI, while taking on responsibility for redesigning foundations for people and organization management premised on AI as CHRO. By integrating AI and HR strategy under the same leader, Mercari will accelerate the AI-Native transformation of the entire company from the organizational level. The successor for the role of CTO is scheduled to be appointed on July 1.
“HR for an AI-Native Company”—Mercari’s vision for the organization and HR’s role
Mercari’s newly established vision, “HR for an AI-Native Company,” aims not only to transform the HR division itself, but also for HR to promote the evolution of the organization into one where every employee cultivates and utilizes AI agents, making decisions with unprecedented speed and quality.
This vision will be executed in two steps.
Step 1: Have HR embody AI-Native itself by fundamentally understanding the potential of AI
First, the HR division will incorporate AI into its daily operations and expand opportunities for all employees to experience what AI can do, such as AI Agent Day.3 By leading by example, HR will create a foundation to lead the transformation of the entire company.
Step 2: Redesign foundations for people and organization management premised on AI and implement them across the company
HR will demonstrate Mercari’s vision of an AI-Native organization to the entire company and reflect it into its systems. Specifically, HR will promote the following two initiatives.
– Redesigning organizational structure and workstyles: The HR division will demonstrate its direction of redesigning workstyles, decision-making and approval processes, organizational structures, and resource allocation premised on AI, including fully deploying a development structure centered around AI.
– Implementing AI-Native evaluation and talent management: HR will build mechanisms to fairly evaluate individuals and teams that produce overwhelming results through AI, evolving recruitment, development, and talent management into forms suitable for an AI-Native company.
3. #0 Mercari Begins “AI Agent Day”: Changing the Workstyles of All Employees with Autonomous AI (https://careers.mercari.com/mercan/articles/60180/) (only available in Japanese)
Shifting to AI-Native workstyles and strengthening recruitment of AI-Native talent
What Mercari aims for as an AI-Native company is an organization where it is standard for every employee to teach their knowledge and decision-making criteria to AI, cultivate multiple AI agents as partners, and go beyond their area of specialization to work and make decisions.
Under the new leadership structure, Mercari will focus on recruiting talent who embody this AI-Native workstyle and will join Mercari in advancing this transformation. With a product used by approximately 23 million people and a cutting-edge environment for leveraging AI, Mercari will broadly seek AI-Native talent, including engineers and product managers.
For information about newly open positions and upcoming recruiting events, please visit Mercari’s careers site (https://careers.mercari.com/en/). Mercari also plans to hold a hiring event titled “Mercari AI Career Fes 2026” on Wednesday, July 8, 2026. For more details, see the event page (https://connpass.com/event/395377/). Additionally, Kimura’s vision upon assuming his new role has been published in an article on Mercari’s owned media Mercan (https://careers.mercari.com/mercan/articles/60398/).
Mercari will continue its transformation into an AI-Native company to achieve its mission: “Circulate all forms of value to unleash the potential in all people.”
Profile
Shunya Kimura
In 2007, Shunya joined MIXI, Inc., where he worked on recommendation engine development and data utilization. He was also involved in developing advertisements and marketing data that leverage machine learning. Shunya joined Mercari in 2017 and was in charge of establishing R4D, Mercari’s research and development organization, as well as overseeing a multitude of AI-focused research fields. Subsequently, he established an engineering organization focused on AI and search engine technologies, was appointed to a director role, and was one of the leaders who pioneered the introduction of AI to Mercari. In July 2022, Shunya was appointed Vice President of Platform Engineering, a position that oversees internal platform development. In July 2024, he assumed the role of Vice President, Chief Technology Officer (Japan Region), General Manager (Japan Region Platform). He became Vice President, Chief Technology Officer (Japan Region) in March 2025, and Vice President, Chief Technology Officer (Japan Business) in July 2025. Shunya assumed the role of Vice President, Chief Human Resources Officer, Chief AI Officer, Chief Technology Officer (Japan Business), in June 2026, and is scheduled to hold the role of Vice President, Chief Human Resources Officer, Chief AI Officer starting July 2026.