Kouji Miki explains how they utilize AI in conducting conferences, providing an opportunity to engage in more ikigai activities.
We can use our free time to pursue ikigai sources
Nick: Let's talk about AI and how you're using AI and how it is benefiting you. So do you want to touch on on that?
Kouji: I have to prepare the Zen 2.0 conference every year. And for this event, we get 60 members, and each person is working for other companies, different companies. So it's very difficult to meet together at once.
We sometimes call meeting online, but 60 people, it’s very difficult to get that 60 people at one time. Our problem is how to meet together. So every year, we have weekly meeting online, but some member are claiming about that there's too many meeting, and they take a long time.
So we introduce AI meeting robot. So during the meeting on the Zoom, this AI, you take a memo by text automatically. So even if the member who cannot join the meeting, they can read the memo generated by AI. It's very effective.
Nick: Okay, so that's one example.
Kouji: Yes, one example. So by using generative AI, we can have much more free time. And how do you use your free time? So I think we can use this free time for ikigai.
Nick: All right. Well, let's touch on that. Because you do write that this increase in productivity will bring enormous amounts of extra time to people potentially putting workers into two categories: One is the ikigai worker, a traditional Japanese concept of well-being and a factor of finding joy in life.
And the other is the worker who has lived a life of work, and has excess time on his or her hands. So yeah, with this idea of more time, and extra time. You've obviously found it helpful. So let's talk about your ikigai sources and the time you now have for them. Do you want to talk about your personal ikigai?
Kouji: My personal ikigai is to transform, consciously, when I started Zazen, and Zazen helped me a lot. So I want to help other people by doing Zen mindfulness. So I'd like to bring these people to this world, I mean, Zen or mindfulness, as much as possible. So this is my ikigai.
That's the reason I started that Zen School, which is innovation school, based on Zen philosophy. This post project is really my ikigai.