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　(Head Office: Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo; CEO: Osamu Hata; hereafter "WAP") announces the introduction of "AI WORKS," an AI chatbot developed in-house, to its in-house contact center. This is expected to halve the man-hours required to search for information when responding to inquiries and significantly reduce the time required to respond to inquiries. AI WORKS" is scheduled to be deployed as a service that can be used directly by the staff of user companies by the end of 2024, after verification of its effectiveness within the company. This will allow users to communicate with AI WORKS themselves, regardless of the contact center's business hours, to quickly solve problems related to the system they are using without having to wait for a response.

1. Issues in finding necessary information, such as reading product manuals

　WAP's contact center receives inquiries from 2,200 user companies. Traditionally, when WAP employees receive an inquiry, they identify the appropriate keywords to search for the corresponding FAQ, search within the FAQ, and if they cannot find the information they need within the FAQ, they must carefully search through the vast amount of product manuals to find the information they need to answer the question themselves. Even for inquiries that can be answered using existing materials such as FAQs and product manuals, it takes a certain amount of time to resolve the inquiry. Complex cases took even longer to resolve.

　To solve this problem, in December 2023, we developed AI WORKS, an AI chatbot that combines Microsoft's Azure OpenAI Service and WAP's business data, in-house and introduced it to our contact center.

2. AI searches and provides answers on your behalf.

　AI WORKS is equipped with a keyword-based cross search function. These keywords are derived from the context of the inquiry and generated by the AI itself. This feature allows users to efficiently look up extensive FAQs and product manuals, and provides comprehensive and resourceful answers to any inquiry. Employees can simply enter user queries directly into the system, eliminating the need to manually identify search terms or search the system to find relevant documents.

　Furthermore, if additional questions or confirmation is needed for the information provided by the user in the inquiry, the AI can organize and present proposed answers for similar cases from past FAQs, and employees can use this information to respond to possible factors for the user's issue. This results in enhanced customer service and quick, accurate answers, regardless of the complexity or ambiguity of the inquiry. The contact center has achieved a reduction of approximately 50% in search man-hours, and is expected to significantly reduce the overall man-hours required to respond to inquiries.

3. Safety assurance using Microsoft Azure, to be offered to user companies within the year.

　AI WORKS leverages Microsoft Azure technology to provide users with insightful responses that leverage the search augmentation generation (RAG) architecture. In addition, the source data used by AI WORKS is securely stored in Azure Storage. In addition, the responses presented are marked with the source of the citation, allowing users to view the source data if the AI-generated response may not be accurate. This increases the reliability of the information.

　AI WORKS was initially introduced to improve operational efficiency within WAP, but the scope of the offering will be expanded during 2024 to allow user companies to use it directly when making inquiries. This will allow users to interact directly with AI WORKS about WAP products.

　In addition, we are also considering providing SI services to help users build a system similar to AI WORKS. It is expected that this system will enable users to quickly solve various inquiries from their clients as well as from within their own companies, without being interrupted by waiting time.

About Works Applications

Works Applications was founded in 1996 as an ERP package vendor in Japan. With innovative solutions such as no-customization and free version upgrades, we have supported the growth of our customers, mainly major Japanese companies. Believing in the potential of each individual, we aim to be a "growth engine" that maximizes the value of companies and individuals, and we will continue our pursuit of turning "work" into "creation" and making "work" fun.

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*The information in this release is current as of the date of the announcement, and is subject to change or withdrawal without notice. Please be aware that the information in this release regarding forecasts and future prospects is uncertain and may differ from actual results.