MORIOKA, Japan – An artificial intelligence-powered terminal has been introduced at a municipal office in northeastern Japan to respond to needs of residents, including helping them fill in documents to enhance public services and ease staffers’ workload.
As visitors talk to the device, set up at city hall in Ichinoseki in Iwate Prefecture, a female character on its display screen talks back to them, providing directions such as which section to visit or assisting with application forms.
By having a driver’s license or the My Number identification card scanned by the device, an applicant’s name and address are automatically entered on the forms.
Ichinoseki officials said the city decided to use the system developed by EasyDialog G.K., a Yokohama-based provider of generative AI chatbots, because they have often been too busy to sufficiently attend to citizens visiting the office.
While the city government eventually wants to replace all manned counters with the AI terminals, catering to elderly citizens not very accustomed to using digital technology remains a challenge.
“Just as self-checkouts have become prevalent in public lives, we will do what we can to let citizens get used to the AI counter and make it widespread,” said Masaharu Sugawara, an official at Ichinoseki in charge of administrative work digitalization.
EasyDialog said the device is connected to Ichinoseki’s knowledge base, including over 7,000 web pages, to properly respond to requests.
It is “a fully integrated system that not only provides information but also takes real-world action: from facial recognition and ID scanning to automated form processing,” it said.
AloJapan.com