Japan's NEC Announces Launch of 'cotomi Gateway': Auto-Masks Confidential Data and Routes AI Models by Task Complexity, Starting at ¥1 Million/Month
NEC announces a new AI gateway balancing security and cost via automatic data masking and intelligent model selection, available from November.
Japanese electronics giant NEC has announced the upcoming launch of "cotomi Gateway," a new AI infrastructure service starting in November. The gateway aims to address the dual challenges of confidential data leakage risks and cost control when enterprises utilize external Large Language Models (LLMs).
According to TechnoEdge, the core mechanism of cotomi Gateway involves automatically detecting and masking sensitive commercial information within employee queries before sending the sanitized requests to external AI models. For complex tasks that cannot be processed after masking, the system automatically routes them to locally deployed internal AI models, ensuring business continuity while maintaining data security.
The service also employs a two-tier strategy to reduce AI usage fees. First, it automatically selects the most appropriate AI model based on task complexity, required answer quality, and budget, avoiding the use of expensive high-performance models for simple questions. Second, the system optimizes prompts by removing redundant information to minimize token consumption.
The currently offered software version starts at ¥1 million per month (excluding tax), with plans to offer it as a SaaS solution later. This product reflects the strategy of major Japanese tech firms to differentiate themselves in the general AI landscape by emphasizing enterprise-grade security governance and cost efficiency to attract domestic clients.