Telecom giant Nippon Telegraph and Telephone will launch a business-use generative artificial intelligence platform in March, in an effort to catch up with foreign rivals in the fast-expanding market. The AI platform has higher Japanese language processing capabilities than ChatGPT, a widely used AI chatbot developed by U.S.-based OpenAI, NTT said earlier in the month. The new AI model, called tsuzumi, named after a Japanese hand drum used in traditional events, can read documents containing charts and diagrams. NTT said it aims for annual sales of over ¥100 billion ($670 million) in this AI platform business by 2027. "The market size will grow bigger and bigger as many companies compete with each other," NTT President Akira Shimada said during a news conference in early November.