Visit of HEC Montréal MBA Students to NICT

On October 2, 2026, a group of 21 MBA students from HEC Montréal, accompanied by 3 HEC Montréal representatives, visited the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT) as part of a study tour exploring how advanced technologies can be leveraged to support a human-centric vision of innovation aligned with principles such as “Society 5.0” and “DX (Digital Transformation) ”

The visit was led by Professor Thierry Warin, an Invited Advisor to NICT who leads the GPAI associated project, “Multilingual and Multicultural AI Project.”

Following a welcome address by Dr. OHNO Hideo, President of NICT, Dr. HARAYAMA Yuko, Secretary General of the Tokyo Centre of the GPAI Expert Community, discussed the meaning of human touch in the age of AI from the perspective of Society 5.0. Next, Dr. OIWA Kazuhiro, Executive Director of the AI Research and Development Promotion Unit at NICT, presented efforts to leverage NICT’s unique data as valuable assets for AI use, as well as future challenges as AI becomes integrated into telecommunications infrastructure. A Q＆A session then followed.

The students raised questions about efforts to preserve human touch in the age of AI and about the implementation of the AI research outcomes in society. The visit facilitated a lively exchange of views on NICT's activities and the future directions in science, technology and societal transformation.