Projimo launches ¥98,000 AI cloud diagnosis for companies afraid of million-yen consulting bills

The expensive first question

Many companies do not know whether they have a cloud problem. They know they have a bill. They know the old system feels fragile. They know someone said “AWS,” someone else said “Azure,” a consultant said “hybrid,” and the finance department quietly developed a facial twitch. What they want first is not a grand transformation program. They want a diagnosis.

That first step has often been too expensive. Projimo’s release puts it plainly: in cloud migration, business-system renewal and post-M&A IT integration, companies often want to understand the current state before making a major decision, but traditional diagnosis itself may assume a consulting contract costing hundreds of thousands to millions of yen. For small and medium-sized companies, even “trying to understand the problem” can become a high hurdle.

Cloud Diagnosis Projimo is designed to lower that front door. The quick diagnosis starts at ¥98,000 before tax with report delivery from as little as one week. The company says it uses an AI diagnosis engine to turn architecture review, multi-cloud cost comparison, risk detection and improvement roadmap generation into a more accessible entry service.

What Projimo is changing

Projimo had previously focused on cloud integration after M&A, including a simplified M&A-specific diagnosis from ¥300,000. In the new announcement, the company says it saw a wider demand for general diagnostic needs beyond M&A and has generalized its AI diagnosis engine into “Cloud Diagnosis Projimo.”

The repositioning is important. It takes a boutique built around a narrow, high-stakes context — post-acquisition IT integration — and tries to apply that knowledge to a broader problem: companies that need a first technical and cost opinion before committing to expensive system work.

The service is aimed at current cloud configurations, architecture options, AWS/Azure/GCP cost ranges, technical debt, bottlenecks and AI-use opportunities. It is not simply “move to the cloud.” In fact, one of its selling points is that it can identify improvement opportunities without assuming migration as the answer.

The three parts of the diagnosis

Projimo describes three main features. First, the user enters the current cloud structure through step-form input, free text and pasted architecture diagrams or text. AI then extracts risks, technical debt and bottlenecks. This matters because many companies do not possess a clean architectural map. They possess memories, fragments, vendor documents and one person who “sort of knows how it works.”

Second, the service compares three scenarios: keep the current state and improve it, optimize by moving to a single cloud, or consider a multi-cloud or hybrid structure. It presents merits and demerits, compares monthly cost ranges across AWS, Azure and GCP, and suggests cost-optimization measures.

Third, it identifies three to four areas where AI can be incorporated into business operations and generates a roadmap across three phases: months one to two, months three to four, and month five onward. That is the business hook. The cloud diagnosis is not only about servers. It is about finding where architecture, cost and AI use meet actual operational pain.

Why this is a good middle-market story

Large companies can absorb expensive consulting discovery phases. They may complain, but they can hold the meetings, feed the deck factory and assign internal staff to the process. Smaller companies do not have that luxury. A wrong cloud decision can be expensive. A correct cloud decision can still feel too expensive to explore.

Japan’s middle market has a particular problem: many companies know they must modernize, but do not know whether the next step is cloud migration, system replacement, cost optimization, security review, workflow automation, AI system development, or simply stopping a bad vendor relationship from becoming a family curse.

That is why a ¥98,000 entry product is interesting. It packages the first decision into something a smaller company can buy without convening a boardroom drama. It does not solve the entire problem. It may create a healthier conversation about what the problem actually is.

The five-field repositioning

The release says Projimo has reorganized its business into five focus areas. The first is AI diagnosis, including Cloud Diagnosis Projimo. The second is AI business-system construction, such as systems for man-hour management, deal management and data visualization. The third is AI-use consulting, embedding AI into processes and decision-making. The fourth is post-M&A IT integration, from 100-day plans to system integration execution. The fifth is large-scale project PMO for multi-vendor projects with budgets in the hundreds of millions of yen.

That list tells us what Projimo wants to become: not a pure SaaS company, not a traditional consulting firm, and not only an M&A IT boutique. It wants to sell AI-assisted first answers, then continue into implementation, integration and project control where needed.

The founder, Takahiro Nishikawa, frames the idea as using AI to provide professional diagnosis to more companies, while experts handle the work after the first answer. That is a more plausible AI consulting model than pretending a model alone can transform a business by Thursday.

Why AI belongs at the diagnostic entrance

AI is particularly useful at the intake stage because early consulting work often involves pattern recognition. What kind of system is this? Where are the risks? Which architecture patterns fit? Which costs look abnormal? What should be inspected next? A human expert still matters, but AI can accelerate the first pass.

In cloud work, the first pass can be surprisingly valuable. Many companies do not need a perfect answer on day one. They need a structured list of options, risks, likely cost ranges and questions to ask before they spend real money. That first map can prevent over-scoped projects, cloud migrations done for fashion, or multi-vendor confusion that slowly eats the budget.

But the diagnosis must avoid false precision. A report generated in one week from limited inputs is not a substitute for full architecture review, security audit, migration planning or implementation design. Its value is as a gate, not a destination. The strongest version of the service will be honest about uncertainty.

M&A is still hiding in the background

Projimo’s earlier positioning around M&A IT integration still matters. M&A exposes cloud and system problems quickly. Two companies combine, and suddenly there are duplicate systems, incompatible data, old on-premise machines, scattered SaaS contracts, security questions, vendor overlap and a management team asking why nothing is simple.

The company’s M&A-specific cloud integration diagnosis remains priced from ¥300,000 for a simplified version, with detailed diagnosis and integration planning from ¥800,000, and ongoing PMO support from ¥600,000 per month. The new ¥98,000 service does not replace that deeper work. It creates a cheaper general-purpose front step for companies that are not yet ready to buy the whole consulting machine.

Projimo is also developing “Claimo,” a PMI-specific project-management SaaS based on consulting-delivery knowledge. The release says features under consideration include automatic Day 1 plan generation, IT asset inventory and AI-generated weekly reports. That hints at the company’s longer ambition: convert consulting experience into repeatable software-supported workflows.

The risk: cheap diagnosis can become expensive comfort

A low-priced diagnosis is useful only if it is honest. The risk in any diagnostic product is that it becomes a sales funnel disguised as neutral advice. A company buys the first report, receives a list of frightening risks, then gets steered into a larger contract. That does not mean Projimo will do this, but the market will judge the product by how balanced the reports feel.

Another risk is input quality. If customers provide incomplete or inaccurate architecture information, the AI diagnosis may produce tidy answers to messy questions. “Garbage in, garbage out” remains undefeated, though it now wears a better user interface.

Finally, small and medium-sized companies may need more handholding than a report can provide. A diagnosis that identifies five architecture options may still leave the owner asking: what should I do Monday morning? The best product will translate cloud language into executive action without pretending every company has an internal CIO waiting to execute.

What to watch

A small bill before the big bill

Projimo’s move is a good press-release story because it points to a real middle-market discomfort. Cloud and AI decisions have become too important to ignore and too complicated to buy blindly. Many companies do not need a global consulting empire. They need a serious first opinion.

The ¥98,000 price is the headline, but the more important idea is sequencing. Diagnose before migrating. Compare before committing. Identify risks before signing. Use AI to draft the first map, then use people where judgment and execution matter.

If Projimo can deliver that honestly, the company may find a useful lane. Not the grandest consulting firm. Not the cheapest AI tool. A practical front office for technical decisions that smaller companies have been afraid to start.

Sometimes digital transformation begins not with a billion-yen program, but with a modest report that stops a company from buying the wrong expensive answer.