Shoichi's Story
Shoichi is the founder of Noto, a small specialty coffee roastery and café in Seoul, South Korea.
Originally from Japan, Shoichi spent eight years as an IT and strategy consultant in Tokyo and Seoul. Outside of work, coffee had always been a quiet passion for him, but he never considered it as anything more than a hobby.
Then the world around him shifted.
Shoichi's Pivot
As AI began reshaping the white-collar world he worked in, Shoichi started thinking seriously about a career beyond knowledge work — something more physical, sensory and human. Paradoxically, AI also made that transition feel possible, lowering the barriers of knowledge and language that came with starting a business in a new industry in a foreign country.
Coffee was changing, too. The pandemic had changed how people consumed and experienced it, and specialty coffee was expanding beyond craft and traceability into creativity, storytelling and hospitality. To Shoichi, it felt like an industry with room for a different perspective, one he planned to provide.
AI gave him both a reason to make the leap — and the tools to make it possible.
AI-Powered, One-of-a-Kind Blends
Shoichi left consulting and started Noto with a simple question: "What would a coffee business look like if it were designed today, with AI as part of its foundation?"
Noto's AI-powered blend-to-order coffee experience is his answer. Instead of choosing from a conventional menu, every customer interacts with a tablet to describe a specific flavor, mood or memory. They can even take a selfie for the system to interpret their current desires.
AI translates these inputs into a one-of-a-kind blend from Noto's coffees. Every order is personalized, and thousands of unique blends have been created this way. The same model is applied to wholesale and brand collaborations, creating distinctive products and experiences for Noto's partners.
Beautiful Coffees and Beautiful Data
This foundation necessarily shapes the way Noto roasts, as well. Shoichi keeps around ten different coffees available at once, roasting a diverse range of origins and processes frequently and in small quantities, all on an Aillio Bullet R1 V2.
The Bullet's one-kilogram capacity allows him to treat the lineup almost like a palette of colors — bringing in unusual varieties, experimental processes, or coffees he simply finds interesting without committing to large production volumes.
Its data-driven ecosystem adds another layer: the ability to work with AI-readable roast data and tap into the broader collective knowledge on Roast.World. Together, these capabilities help make Noto's business model possible.
The Best of Both Worlds
Shoichi's approach to coffee reflects both his old and new worlds: systems, data and technology on one side; taste, craft and human connection on the other. For him, AI isn't about removing people from coffee, it simply makes it possible for people to do more with it.
“If technology can manage the complexity, what new things can we do with coffee?”