July 31, 2025
5 min read
Laurie Sullivan
Rakuten Group launches AI-powered full-funnel affiliate tools integrating chat, search, voice, and fraud detection for personalized marketing.
Rakuten Group, a prominent Japanese technology conglomerate with core businesses spanning e-commerce, fintech, digital content, and communications, is undertaking a significant AI initiative by building an AI agentic network. This network is designed to embed Rakuten AI across its extensive array of tools and platforms.
The newly developed AI-powered suite boasts a comprehensive range of functionalities, including AI chat, advanced AI search with deep thinking capabilities, a voice mode, translation services, AI reading, coding assistance, problem-solving tools, and image creation. These integrated tools are specifically engineered to enhance affiliate advertising, benefiting both publishers and consumers. Ben Cox, Vice President of AI Strategies and Operations at Rakuten Advertising, highlighted the company's distinctive strategy, stating, "When we say affiliate intelligence it’s us tripling down on a hard tech approach to solving the toughest problems in affiliate marketing. We are born from Rakuten, so we are a technology company at the core. There’s no other affiliate network training and building LLMs from scratch." The phased rollout of these AI tools is scheduled for Rakuten Ichiba, the company's shopping platform, in the fall of 2025. Prior to this, Rakuten AI has already been integrated into Rakuten Link, the communication application for Rakuten Mobile subscribers, and is accessible as a beta web application.
Rakuten AI operates by leveraging specialized agents and data insights, encompassing user attributes, preferences, and purchasing trends, to deliver highly personalized product recommendations. Consumers can engage with the AI through text input, voice-to-text conversion, and image search, with the flexibility to explore multiple AI-generated prompts for follow-up inquiries. Furthermore, Rakuten Advertising Detect, a new AI model launched in late May, is dedicated to identifying ad fraud by analyzing performance patterns. It also monitors financial products and competitive rankings, effectively detecting significant shifts across various metrics. This fraud detection model is now a core component of Rakuten’s advertising services, ensuring the integrity of advertising campaigns. In the U.S., Rakuten is widely recognized for its popular cash-back program, which provides consumers with discount codes and deals for both online and in-store purchases, featuring over 2,500 brands. Rakuten Group's holistic AI strategy aims to revolutionize affiliate marketing by merging advanced AI technology with comprehensive data analytics, equipping advertisers and marketers with robust tools to optimize performance and elevate consumer engagement.
Source: Originally published at MediaPost on July 31, 2025. What functionalities does the Rakuten AI-powered suite offer?
When is the AI technology planned to be rolled out on Rakuten Ichiba?
How does Rakuten AI provide personalized recommendations?
What is Rakuten Advertising Detect?
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Source: Originally published at MediaPost on July 31, 2025.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
- What is Rakuten Group building with AI?
Rakuten Group is building an AI agentic network to embed its AI capabilities across its diverse range of tools and platforms.The suite includes AI chat, AI search with deep thinking, voice mode, translation, AI reading, coding, problem-solving, and image creation.The rollout on Rakuten Ichiba is planned for the fall of 2025.It leverages specialized agents and data insights like user attributes, preferences, and purchasing trends to offer personalized product recommendations.Rakuten Advertising Detect is an AI model launched to identify ad fraud by analyzing performance patterns and monitoring financial products and competitive rankings.