Japan’s home‑appliance retailers struggle to provide expert sales help outside store hours amid tight staffing. avatarin, an AI customer service firm spun out of ANA Holdings, teamed with Yamada Holdings to convert seasoned associates’ knowledge into a 24/7 multilingual shopping agent. Built on Open AI’s GPT‑Realtime, the Kurashi‑Marugoto AI Agent supports natural voice conversations and guides shoppers from product discovery to purchase decisions.

In a two‑week public campaign on Yamada Denki’s online store, approximately 30,000 people used the agent; 92% of survey responses were positive. Akira Fukabori, CEO of avatarin, said the tool is not a conventional chatbot but an attempt to expand what customer service can be with AI, marking the start of an ‘interface revolution’ in retail.

He highlighted that GPT‑Realtime unites voice, text, and visual understanding with low latency, allowing the agent to adapt to how people communicate rather than forcing users to follow machine rules. By listening for context instead of waiting for keywords, the agent answers nuanced questions such as ‘I need a refrigerator for a family of four, but my kitchen is small. Which one should I choose?’ and provides accurate, retrieval‑augmented product information while staying responsive.

The campaign revealed deeper insights into shopper hesitations and preferences, turning each conversation into feedback for service improvement. Customers described the agent as easier to talk to than a human associate and valued the ability to ask questions after store hours without pressure. avatarin envisions a single intelligence delivering consistent brand experiences across web, phone, and physical stores—One Intelligence. One Brand. Every interface.