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Unionthink Co., Ltd.
Unionthink, a Japanese independent software vendor (ISV), specializes in developing and selling its own solutions, primarily targeting Japanese small and medium-sized enterprises. And recently, product inquiries to its customer center had been increasing, creating an urgent need to deliver more efficient responses.
At the time, the team manually categorized incoming inquiries to analyze and improve the company’s posted frequently asked questions (FAQs). But in order to keep up with growing demand, Unionthink wanted to streamline its processes. In addition to reducing classification work time, the business also was hoping to improve customer satisfaction and make it easier to analyze inquiry trends.
Taking advantage of IBM Watson® Natural Language Processing Library for Embed, the customer center can now address inquiries more effectively. As a first step, IBM and Unionthink created a custom language model using IBM watsonx.ai™, which was trained on manually categorized inquiries.
The client then conducted an accuracy comparison of the various models offered by IBM products, selecting the most effective one. Further refinement was achieved through technical verification, which involved modifications to and tuning of the training data.
Additionally, a proof-of-concept (PoC) was conducted where UnionThink explored tasks like keyword extraction from inquiries. And this co-creation activity with IBM confirmed the potential of AI technology for resolving the firm’s current challenges.
Challenges such as rising workloads and labor shortages in customer centers will significantly impact future business expansion and continuity for Unionthink. Consequently, there will be an increasing need to leverage AI technology to substitute human labor and enhance efficiency.
Through this co-creation activity with IBM, Unionthink is demonstrating how AI can enhance its business, putting it on the starting point to transition from human labor to AI. And in order to continue to improve customer satisfaction, the business intends to take full advantage of current AI technology and continue its work with IBM as a business partner.
Unionthink (link resides outside of ibm.com) is an ISV that develops and sells its own solutions in Japan. The company specializes in supporting small- and medium-sized businesses, and it boasts a high market share in quality control solutions for the pharmaceutical industry in particular—including large enterprises.
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