Visualizing the “Power to Move People” with AI — Industry-Academia Collaboration Launches Research on New Methods for Leadership Development

ZenX Inc. (Headquarters: Shibuya, Tokyo; President and CEO: Masahiro Goto), jointly with AI Education Lab Inc. (Representative Director: Hideaki Suzuki, Associate Professor at Shoin University), began research in September 2025 on a new talent development model that quantifies human emotional and interpersonal capabilities and applies them in combination with AI. Targeting managers, management-level employees, and leaders, the research aims to visualize and quantify EQ and SQ and to build mechanisms that optimize talent placement and raise the precision of development.

*EQ (Emotional Intelligence Quotient): the ability to understand emotions and build better relationships with others. *SQ (Social Intelligence Quotient): the ability to cooperate with those around you and bring a team together effectively.

■ Background of the Research

Precisely because AI and automation are advancing, the "distinctly human capabilities" of understanding emotions and bringing people together matter more than ever. Across a range of industries, EQ and SQ challenges are considered one factor behind rising turnover rates (see table).

In fact, about 40% of managers in Japan report challenges in communicating with their direct reports (survey from Asiro's official release "Bennavi Labor Issues"). Managers and leaders need the ability to read emotions and situations and to lead teams in cooperation with others — yet this has traditionally depended on experience and intuition and has been difficult to reproduce scientifically.

*Industry-specific challenges this research aims to help solve (examples)

About 78% of companies worldwide have applied AI to part of their operations (McKinsey, 2025 survey)

At the same time, how to measure and leverage the "uniquely human capabilities" that AI cannot replace will be key to organizational competitiveness going forward. EQ and SQ are growing ever more important in AI-era talent strategy, and establishing new scientific indicators has become an urgent priority for companies and educational institutions.

■ Goals of This Research

• Build mechanisms to measure and visualize EQ and SQ

• Use AI to identify who fits which job and provide insights for optimal talent placement

• Establish scientific methods for developing leaders

Skills to be measured: empathy, cooperativeness, organizational understanding, adaptability, influence, visioning, the ability to inspire others, problem-solving, creativity, and more

■ Future Outlook

Understanding and leveraging employees' EQ and SQ can also improve the precision of team building, helping optimize talent placement at large companies and create organizations capable of competing globally. It will also help build environments in which diverse talent can step up regardless of region or educational background, and enable highly reproducible management grounded in scientific data rather than experience and intuition. The partners aim to roll this out to companies and educational institutions nationwide and to promote human-centered organization-building fit for the AI era.

■ Comments

Masahiro Goto (President and CEO, ZenX Inc.)

"Analyzing intuition and sensibility with technology. Precisely because technology has advanced this far, humanity becomes a company's strength. If we can visualize emotional and social intelligence and realize optimal placement and development, even small and midsize companies will be able to practice people-centered, highly reproducible management."

Hideaki Suzuki (Representative Director, AI Education Lab Inc. / Associate Professor, Shoin University)

"Although EQ and SQ can be measured scientifically, their use in business is still limited. The data gained from this research should become a new guidepost for talent development and organization-building."

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■ About ZenX Inc.

ZenX is a next-generation talent firm that promotes the "optimal allocation of social capital" through AI and data, aiming to realize a society in which everyone can deliver value in the place best suited to them.

Leveraging AI analysis and assessment technology, ZenX visualizes and structures companies' management and organizational challenges, then analyzes multifaceted information on talent — abilities, personality, orientation, learning tendencies, and more — to match people with the jobs and organizations where they can deliver the greatest value.

The future we envision is an "optimally allocated world" like the following.

• People are placed where they can thrive most, according to their skills and aspirations

• Resource disparities across regions and industries are corrected

• The labor market becomes visible, enabling quantitative talent utilization

• Society evolves toward an industrial structure that adapts flexibly to change

ZenX will continue striving for total optimization — eliminating waste in every industry and raising the competitiveness and well-being of society as a whole.

■ EQ business professional

Trademark registration overview: Vocational aptitude tests and assessments; tests and assessments of personality, social competence, entrepreneurial disposition, and similar traits; and other vocational aptitude tests and assessments

Trademark registration: Registration No. 6627736

■ Overview of the Fee-Charging Employment Placement Business License

License number (Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare): 13-ユ-315546

Date of license: August 1, 2023

Scope of job categories handled: All job categories, within Japan

■ ZenX Inc. Company Overview

Company name: ZenX Inc.

Representative: Masahiro Goto

Founded: 2019

Address: Cerulean Tower 15F, 26-1 Sakuragaokacho, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo

■ Contact for This Release

ZenX Inc. PR Office: Kaneda and Masuda

Email: pr@zenx.jp