Reducing the burden on the environment by using the Chatbot Service

Introducing the Chatbot Service^(*1) improved the efficiency of the inquiry-handling work at the General Affairs department.
CO₂ emissions are reduced by 40% due to the reduction in the hours needed to handle inquiries from employees and the reduction in the power consumption of IT devices.

Customer's issues

It often takes time for employees to reach the FAQs on the website. For this reason, General Affairs department personnel usually need to individually answer even frequently asked questions, and the required work time does not decrease.

Functional unit: The work in the General Affairs department to respond to 9,600 inquiries, annualy, regarding labor-related administrative procedures. (This number includes those in which employees can solve their questions by themselves.)

Images of before and after the introduction

Effects

Introduction of the Chatbot Service improved convenience of use, which resulted in an increase in the utilization rate of the chatbot. As a result, the General Affairs department shortened the response time for frequently asked questions and reduced the required work hours by about 60%.

CO₂ emissions: Reduction per year = 1,280 kg of CO₂. CO₂ reduction rate = 40%

Graphs of CO2 emissions and CO2 reduction rates before and after the introduction

Factors that reduce the burden on the environment

Reduced work hours (60%)
Reduced power consumption (8%)

Factors that increase the burden on the environment

No factor increased the burden.

The factors related to the burden on the environment differ depending on the assessment conditions or the assessment model.
This assessment used SI-LCA^(*2), which is Hitachi, Ltd.'s method for calculating CO₂ emissions. The assessment was calculated using information as of March 2019 and using the usage stage as the assessment target.

*1: Digital dialog service: An "automatic conversation program" that combines chat (conversations) and a bot (robot), and utilizes artificial intelligence (AI)
*2: SI-LCA (System Integration-Life Cycle Assessment): This conforms to "FY2005 Eco-Efficiency Assessment Guideline for Information and Communication Technology (ICT)" issued by the Japan Environmental Efficiency Forum (currently Life Cycle Assessment Society of Japan) in March 2006.