JBS Jointly Launches Service with Mitsubishi Research Institute to Respond to Resident Enquiries Using AI

Japan Business Systems, Inc. (Head Office: Minato-ku, Tokyo; Representative: Yukihiro Makita, President; hereinafter “JBS”) will launch an AI staffed comprehensive information service jointly with Mitsubishi Research Institute, Inc. (hereinafter “MRI”) in October 2018 to handle various enquiries from residents to local governments.

The operation of local governments is becoming increasingly difficult due to falling populations, fiscal difficulties, and the needs of residents becoming more diverse and complex. A demonstration test was conducted in February 2018 and was well-received by local governments, leading to the development of the service as a measure to overcome this problem.

As in the demonstration test, this service will handle a wide range of residents’ enquiries such as those about child-rearing, procedures to move or change addresses, how to dispose of garbage, residence certificates and family registers, and how to request various documents. These services will be provided through an AI-enabled chat function that has learned to respond to such enquiries. In developing the service, the results gained from the demonstration test were incorporated to better reflect the needs of local governments and residents and improve the service.

Additionally, the demonstration test showed significant need for service provision through the messaging app LINE, which is also something that has been realized. By registering the service as a “friend” on LINE, it will be possible for users to make enquiries to local governments through this popular and familiar platform.

Moreover, this service completely adopts Microsoft Azure, a public cloud, as its infrastructure in order to handle large-scale access from residents.

Microsoft Azure was determined to be the optimal infrastructure for this service and adopted not only for its high scalability and development productivity, but was also confirmed to be a sufficiently transparent public cloud in security reference for Microsoft Azure for local governments version 1.0.

Along with the provision of this service, JBS has prepared a free trial service of up to three months so that local government officials can consider its usability and potential impact.

Note:

JBS Starts Verification Test for Resident Service for Inquiries Using AI - More Than 30 Local Governments Participate -