Iwanuma City in Miyagi to Launch AI Phone Service That Routes Calls
Iwanuma City in Miyagi Prefecture will introduce an AI-powered phone answering service for municipal calls, the first such system among local governments in northeastern Japan. The AI listens to inquiries, recognizes dialects with roughly 90 percent accuracy, and transfers callers to the appropriate department. Introduced by newly elected Mayor Satoshi Onizawa, the service cuts costs by about one-third and begins in late August.
Iwanuma City in Miyagi Prefecture will begin operating a new service in which artificial intelligence (AI) answers calls made to the city hall's main switchboard. The AI listens to the caller's inquiry and transfers the call to the relevant department. This marks the first such introduction among local governments in the Tohoku region, and the AI is reportedly able to recognize dialects. Verification by the service provider showed that even with dialects or distinctive accents, the AI correctly identified roughly 90 percent of speech.
The service was introduced by Satoshi Onizawa, who was elected mayor for the first time in the June mayoral election. Compared with the previous arrangement that used human operators, the service can reduce costs by about one-third. Operations are scheduled to begin in late August.
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