“The strength of our service lies in ‘choosing a car with professional advice,’ and the very presence of professional ‘people’ is our source of competitive advantage. Looking ahead, to achieve non-linear business growth, we did not want to simply replace tasks with AI; instead, we wanted to leverage technology to support people and enhance their capabilities.”

So says Mr. Ota of Orico Car Life Co., Ltd. In the company’s car leasing service “Orico de Noru,” they have introduced the telephone AI agent “BOTCHAN AICALL” for call operations, achieving an impressive 100% call completion rate immediately after it went live.

Going beyond the context of mere efficiency, how did they transfer the seasoned staff’s “expert know-how” and “hospitality” into the system and maximize the customer experience? In this article, through the words of Mr. Ota, Mr. Chiba, and Mr. Nonaka, who are leading the business, we explore what a future business model looks like in which people and AI coexist.

Company Overview: Supporting Your Ideal Car Life with a Solid Foundation and Professional Proposal Capabilities

Orico Car Life Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of Orient Corporation, provides the car leasing service “Orico de Noru” nationwide through insurance agencies and via the web.

“Orico de Noru” is characterized above all by its “professional car selection service,” in which knowledgeable staff propose the optimal vehicle from a rich lineup of approximately 300 models, in addition to the convenience of driving a new car for a fixed monthly fee with no down payment or initial costs. The company also supports customers’ mobility lifestyles through a multifaceted approach, including acting as the exclusive master distributor for the parking space sharing service “akippa”.

Orico Car Life service site: https://orico-de-noru.jp/ Corporate site: https://orico-carlife.jp/

Orico Car Life service site:https://orico-de-noru.jp/
Corporate site:https://orico-carlife.jp/

Introduction of the person in charge

Mr. Naoki Ota, Orico Car Life Co., Ltd.

After working in sales at a non-life insurance company, I joined the firm as a founding member. Starting with no prior experience in the web domain or product development, I have built a broad track record spanning engineering through to marketing. I am currently responsible for management, medium- to long-term strategy, and the overall web business. Describing myself as a “mixed martial artist first penguin,” I lead unprecedented initiatives while placing the highest priority on the process of “codifying expertise,” in which on-the-ground knowledge is systematically embedded into our systems.

Orico Car Life Co., Ltd. Mr. Takeshi Chiba

Amid an increase in personnel driven by business expansion, I have been responsible for a wide range of areas, including organizational motivation management and building operational structures. Currently, I am also deeply involved in planning and driving web strategies that cover everything from customer acquisition and improving conversion rates to enhancing LTV (lifetime customer value), thereby supporting the creation of a robust foundation for sustainable business growth.

Orico Car Life Co., Ltd. Ms. Saori Nonaka

Although I have no prior experience in the automotive industry, I am building my expertise under Mr. Chiba and working hard to play a central role in web marketing and project promotion. With a frontline perspective, I engage sincerely with AI and work every day to improve service quality, including refining prompts.

Challenges and background before implementation: “Personalization” and “resource limitations” as bottlenecks to business growth

Even as the company continued to gain strong support from many customers, it was facing the challenge of passing on its expertise in line with business growth. In the car leasing proposal business, which requires advanced knowledge and a high level of hospitality, it was not easy to expand the size of the organization while maintaining high-quality service.

In addition, because inbound calls for preliminary screening applications were handled “by live agents only,” we were unable to respond to calls outside business hours, resulting in significant lost opportunities—an urgent issue that needed to be addressed.

Mr. Ota:“There has been, and will continue to be, no wavering in our policy of committing to ‘people’ as we pursue business growth. However, there are physical limits to human resources. Simply doubling the headcount raises concerns that the culture and values we have cherished could be diluted. A key theme for us has been how to systematize and faithfully reproduce the ‘intangible assets’ our members have built up over many years—such as their knowledge and the hospitality with which they stand by our customers—and how to pass these on to the next generation.”

Chiba: “As the company grew and the number of people increased, I strongly felt there were many new issues we needed to address, such as managing organizational motivation and running back-office operations. That is precisely why we had to keep taking on challenges while aiming for nonlinear business expansion that does not rely solely on human resources.”

Encounter with the service and the deciding factor for implementation: Resonance with the concept of “professionalization”

Among the many AI solutions available, our decision to choose “BOTCHAN AICALL” was driven less by its technical specifications and more by a deep resonance with the philosophy behind the service.

Mr. Ota:“What we were looking for was not a tool that mechanically processes existing operations. Rather than using the emerging generation of AI as a simple replacement for something, we wanted to use it to further sharpen the expertise we already possess. We saw strong potential in the concept of ‘skill enhancement’ advocated by ‘BOTCHAN AICALL’ and immediately felt that this was the solution that could break through our challenges.”

In addition, as a company that handles financial-related services, security was also a major factor in our decision.

Mr. Ota: “Since we handle personal information, our security requirements are extremely strict. Your company proposed a design based on this high level of requirements. As a result, being able to move into production in just one month from requirements definition through to implementation greatly reinforced our trust in you.”

Implementation process and results: astonishing improvement speed that achieved a 100% call completion rate the day after go-live

The performance after implementation exceeded our initial expectations. Behind this result was not only the capability of the AI itself, but also the unwavering commitment to operations shared by the frontline team and Customer Success (CS).

Mr. Ota:“The call completion rate on the first day of operation was 90%. That alone is already a very high figure, but it reached 100% the following day. What surprised me was the speed of that improvement. I realized that BOTCHAN AICALL is not a service you simply implement and leave as is; it is a service that instantly ‘matures’ by incorporating real, on-site data.”

In the concrete operational process, what on-site members focused on most was pursuing the “quality of dialogue.” They incorporated the tacit response know-how of top operators into the prompts and built a response flow that functions not as something mechanical, but as a “concierge that stands by the user’s side.”

In addition, for individual circumstances that are difficult for AI to handle, we designed a “positive call-closing flow” that encourages customers to call back during business hours without leaving a negative impression. As a result, even for calls received outside business hours, we are able to deliver a level of customer service performance comparable to live support during business hours, significantly reducing lost opportunities and reliably driving conversions.

Mr. Ota:“Those of us on the front lines also listened carefully to every single voice log, and translated the experts’ sense of ‘timing’ and ‘tone of voice’ into language so the AI could learn it. With your CS team, we did not simply receive proposals; we repeatedly engaged in highly energetic exchanges where we challenged each other with improvement ideas. It is precisely because we had this kind of close partnership that we were able to achieve these results in such a short period of time, in my view.”

Mr. Nonaka:“On the front lines, we provide detailed feedback to the AI, asking it for responses that really convey ‘you genuinely like car leasing, don’t you.’ At the same time, as I watch how the AI responds, I often realize, ‘I wasn’t able to answer this accurately myself up to this point,’ and I feel as though I am growing together with the AI. Thanks to this collaborative framework of nurturing the product together, I find your company’s CS support extremely reassuring.”

Value after implementation: AI nurtures people, creating a synergistic effect that leads to enhanced human capabilities.

The introduction of “BOTCHAN AICALL” is not merely improving operational efficiency; it is driving an organizational paradigm shift.

Mr. Ota: “By having team members listen back to the AI’s voice logs and think, ‘We should handle this part differently,’ it created opportunities for them to repeatedly refine their own inputs and outputs. As a result,we are seeing a synergistic effect in which the conversion rate when handled by a human has also doubled,and AI has created triggers for people’s growth and helped raise the skill level of the entire organization.”

Mr. Chiba: “In online AI-based customer service, the process of thoroughly identifying what customers are looking for has much in common with the sales style we use in face-to-face interactions. By incorporating the objective perspective of AI, it has ultimately become a valuable opportunity for us to reassess our own human-driven sales capabilities.”

Future outlook: Promoting horizontal deployment and making conversational data (VoC) the core of our business strategy

While steadily delivering results, the company is already looking further ahead. Encouraged by the strong response to the recent preliminary screening support, it has decided to introduce BOTCHAN AICALL to the FAQ (maintenance support) contact line, where capacity had been under pressure, and plans to continue expanding its use going forward.

Mr. Ota:“Going forward, by conducting in‑depth analysis of user insights drawn from the vast volume of conversational data obtained through ‘BOTCHAN AICALL,’ we aim to feed those findings back into improving customer experience across multiple channels, including web advertising and SNS communications. I am convinced that our efforts to give concrete form to the value we wish to preserve, and to carry forward trust through technology, will become the core of our future business strategy.”

Advice for people facing the same challenges

Finally, we received a message for those in charge at companies that are considering digital transformation or the use of AI.

Mr. Ota:“What matters is not what you make AI do, but how you envision ‘growing together with AI.’ Rather than suddenly trying to replace everything with AI, I believe you should start small, experiment, and experience firsthand the potential for people and AI to evolve together. For a company like yours, choosing a partner who deeply understands your brand and customers and is willing to work hard alongside you is more important than the choice of technology itself. When on-the-ground passion is combined with technology, the business begins to grow at a pace beyond what you imagined.”

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Leveraging AI to maximize “human value.” The initiatives of Orico Car Life Co., Ltd. can be regarded as an ideal pioneering example of how technology will be utilized in future B2B business. If you are considering implementing BOTCHAN and would like to enhance your company’s strengths through AI, please feel free to contact us.