This article is a modified version of an advertorial originally published in "Japan Innovation Review" on April 8, 2025.
Opportunities to see tangible examples of business transformation using generative AI are increasing. Tokyu Livable Co., Ltd. began introducing generative AI on its real estate information site starting in March. Japan Innovation Review Editor-in-Chief Tomokazu Segi spoke with Rikiya Aizawa of Tokyu Livable and two members of dentsu Japan (Dentsu Group Inc.) who supported the development about the project's objectives and its unique features enabling careful interactions with customers.
Why did you introduce generative AI?
Q. Tokyu Livable is currently implementing generative AI on its real estate information site. What were the project's objectives?
Aizawa: Our real estate information site is visited by customers searching for properties to "buy" or "rent," as well as those considering selling. The site's role is to receive inquiries from these customers and drive conversions, such as requests for property viewings or appraisals. My mission is to create an environment that is as stress-free and user-friendly as possible.
We've implemented various measures to increase dwell time and revisit rates. Among these, introducing generative AI to the real estate information site involved placing a generative AI chatbot in the bottom-right corner. For example, if someone asks, "I have a question like this—can I consult with you?", it guides them to the appropriate page. Or during property searches, even when users haven't fully defined their search criteria, it provides relevant suggestions. This initiative aims to enhance the customer experience on the site and bridge users to the information they seek.
Q. Could you tell us about the background of collaborating with dentsu Japan to advance this project?
Aizawa: In response to our desire to provide personalized, optimal communication to customers with diverse needs, they proposed utilizing generative AI as a solution. One reason was that dentsu Japan had actual experience implementing generative AI and possessed a wealth of case studies.
Another key factor was their marketing expertise, which was crucial from the perspective of website renovation and improvement. While consulting firms and system integrators were also candidates for collaboration, dentsu Japan stood out for excelling in both technology and marketing knowledge. We felt particularly confident that working together would lead to a superior outcome.
Tokyu Livable Co., Ltd. Management Division, Marketing Promotion Department, Digital Communications Section Mr. Rikiya Aizawa
Ikeda: Traditionally, when users visited real estate information sites, they had to sift through vast amounts of data to find what they needed. By leveraging generative AI chat, we can solve problems through conversational "AI customer service," creating benefits for both "users" and "Tokyu Livable."
For users, chatting with AI allows them to casually ask "what they want to know" anytime. For Tokyu Livable, it enables understanding each customer's needs through conversation and making optimal proposals tailored to each individual. I believe this mutual benefit is what earned our recognition.
Beneficial: On typical websites, users type words into a search box in a specific language. However, if what they want isn't clearly articulated, this becomes a difficult task. By leveraging generative AI, even when users aren't sure what they want yet, the AI conversation helps clarify it. We believe this represents significant value.
Mr. Shinichi Masutoku, Director, AI & Data Consulting Division, Data & Engagement Department, Dentsu Digital Inc.
AI learns from "Sales Playbooks" and "QA Collections"
Q. Implementing generative AI on a large-scale site with 50 million annual visitors is an unprecedented and challenging endeavor in the industry. What are the key features of the "Generative AI Customer Support" function?
Ikeda: As mentioned earlier, it's a system where a chat icon is placed in the bottom right corner of the current site. When users type in a chat, they receive a response. The AI quickly answers users' questions and requests related to property searches.
The key feature is that we've fed the AI truly reliable, accurate data cultivated by Tokyu Livable through years of experience and proven results. This data includes unique information assets like the "Sales Manual" and "Staffed Chat Q&A Collection" – Tokyu Livable's own "secret sauce" – making it something competitors cannot easily replicate.
Aizawa: The Sales Manual refers to training materials for sales personnel. The Q&A collection was created for staff handling the "live chat" feature, which has been part of our website for some time. We also converted various other systematically compiled internal information—like pamphlets distributed to customers and handbooks explaining the buying/selling process—into a format easily digestible for AI learning.
Reference Diagram: How "Tellus Talk" Works (Provided by Tokyu Livable)
Benefit: Functionally, its greatest feature is its ability to grow. While it already integrates various data sources, as new questions arise from diverse customers, we will further advance data integration. This will enable it to grow into an AI uniquely tailored to Tokyu Livable.
As this cycle continues, it is expected that questions initially unanswerable will become answerable over time, gradually developing into a smarter AI.
Q. Even if there isn't a perfectly matching property, it suggests properties close to the desired conditions or makes recommendations with reasoning based on limited information. Its responses, like those of a salesperson, are unique.
Aizawa: Thank you. We focused on flexibility in responses and striving to be as customer-centric as possible. I also believe the fact that the responder is an AI is key. From a customer's perspective, situations like "I don't want to ask a person, but I want to look into it a bit" or "I'm hesitant to ask someone directly about inheritance, marriage, or divorce" can be easier to discuss with an AI, lowering the psychological barrier and making it simpler to ask questions.
Furthermore, we don't just respond to the questions customers ask and end there. We aim to be a good sounding board and a good confidant, presenting the optimal solution that the customer is seeking.
Chat Response Concept (Provided by Tokyu Livable)
Enhancing Customer Experience to Become a "Site Chosen by Customers"
Q. Could you also tell us about the division of roles within the AI implementation project at dentsu Japan, as well as the challenging aspects and points you focused on?
For "Product Management," we leveraged dentsu Japan's marketing expertise to maximize the marketing effectiveness of Tokyu Livable's site while coordinating technical aspects with Dentsu Digital Inc.
For "Project Management," we served as the overall project coordinator, responsible for everything from planning formulation to progress management and quality control.
Ms. Misaki Ikeda, DX Development Manager, Business Transformation Division 1, Dentsu Inc.
Beneficial: Using generative AI means allowing uncertainty within the system architecture itself. In typical system development, whether it functions according to requirements is the evaluation criterion at the final acceptance stage. However, this changes when generative AI is integrated.
For example, when asked about a property, a traditional system would respond with A, B, or C based on predefined rules. Generative AI, however, can provide infinite possibilities. Controlling this infinite aspect required continuous trial and error through daily PDCA cycles starting from the development phase. While this was the most challenging part, it was also the most rewarding.
Q. Was cross-group collaboration smooth?
Beneficial: It was a very large project, and a difficult one involving the use of generative AI. It was good that the Dentsu Inc. team oversaw the whole project, allowing us at Dentsu Digital Inc. to focus on the difficult aspects of generative AI. It wouldn't have gone smoothly without the Dentsu Inc. team.
Q. How would you evaluate dentsu Japan's support for this project?
Aizawa: Their high level of expertise in using generative AI, the technical skill to handle and fine-tune it effectively, the alignment from a marketing perspective, and the design team's sense and high creativity all empowered our project.
This time, we had them create a character for the generative AI chat. They meticulously developed the personality based on the role and mission the AI should fulfill, then explored visuals and naming to embody that.
Even during the proposal phase leading up to this, they provided a wide range of variations, each of high quality, making the process of narrowing down the options very positive.
Generative AI Chat Character "Tellus Talk" (Provided by: Tokyu Livable)
Q. What are your future prospects?
Aizawa: We released the generative AI chat in March 2025, but AI isn't finished once released—it can start degrading from that moment onward. To keep up with daily trend changes, we're constantly faced with choices: should we adopt newly released models, or apply other types of tuning? Furthermore, we'll likely discover things only after customers start using it and identify areas needing refinement, so the real work begins now.
Our ultimate goal remains becoming a site chosen by customers. Effectively utilizing the raw customer feedback gathered post-release is crucial. We believe it's vital to return this value to customers as added benefits, whether through feedback to the sales department or applying it to site revisions and improvements.
Q. Following Mr. Aizawa's comments, could you share dentsu Japan's enthusiasm and message to conclude?
Ikeda: Enhancing the customer experience encourages user engagement, which in turn increases the volume of data. Furthermore, accumulating personalized data for each user through chat communications within the platform also improves the quality of that data.
Through this virtuous cycle, we aim to use this enriched data to jointly develop various initiatives with Tokyu Livable. These initiatives will focus on the growth and improvement of AI unique to Tokyu Livable, as well as the creation of new value. We want to connect this not only to the AI chat but to the "enhancement of the customer experience" across the entire website.
Beneficial: Leveraging generative AI will not only transform Tokyu Livable's real estate information site but also significantly alter how customers search and engage with real estate. Furthermore, utilizing "conversational data"—which differs entirely in quality from traditional metrics like CTR or dwell time—holds the potential to yield deeper insights. The specific desires and emotions of customers, revealed through conversational context and intent, may spark new value propositions and service ideas that traditional metrics couldn't capture.
Naturally, as such changes spread, competitors will follow suit. However, precisely because generative AI will become commonplace, taking the lead in the industry to pursue new transformations should enable Tokyu Livable to provide even greater added value to its customers. We look forward to continuing to partner with you on these next transformative steps.
After the Interview Yukawa Segi, Editor-in-Chief, Japan Innovation Review
This series, which examines the current state of the transformation dentsu Japan is pursuing through interviews with key figures, clarifies its characteristics, and explores the value it brings to customers and society, has now entered its third year.
This time, we conducted our first interview with a dentsu Japan client company. Our guest was Rikiya Aizawa of Tokyu Livable.
Truly, "seeing is believing." I believe we gained a deeper understanding than ever before of where dentsu Japan's uniqueness lies and what value it delivers to its clients.
During the interview, Mr. Aizawa cited dentsu Japan's high technical capabilities and extensive track record in AI as key reasons for collaborating. He further explained that beyond mere technical expertise, he valued their know-how and practical ability to leverage this for marketing. Indeed, seeing Mr. Aizawa's satisfied expression and tone made it clear that this approach was spot on, especially after this generative AI implementation project.
AI is the area where Dentsu Japan focuses most intensely, and its strength in marketing makes sense given its origins as an advertising agency. However, what I reaffirmed in this interview, and what truly drove home the point that seeing is believing, is that Dentsu Japan's strength lies elsewhere. It is their "ability to collaborate."
Upon entering the conference room for the interview that day, I found two men and one woman chatting amiably. Naturally, I knew I was there to speak with Mr. Aizawa from Tokyu Livable, Mr. Ikeda from Dentsu Inc., and Mr. Tanoshii from Dentsu Digital Inc. Yet, the warm, friendly atmosphere among the three made it impossible to tell who was the client and who was from Dentsu Japan until Mr. Aizawa offered his business card. They blended together so seamlessly as one team.
When driving a project forward, such as introducing generative AI for marketing applications as in this case, expertise in AI technology and marketing is crucial. However, in some instances, the quality of teamwork and the smoothness of communication among the project members can be even more decisive for the project's success or failure. This holds true between the client and the partner, and equally so between partners themselves (in this case, Dentsu Inc. and Dentsu Digital Inc.). If there are issues with teamwork or communication, no matter how advanced the technology or how deep the marketing expertise, the path to project success ultimately becomes steep and arduous. That's precisely why the "ability to collaborate" is paramount.
Today, many companies are undertaking various transformation projects. The larger the company-wide initiative, the more diverse the stakeholders involved. Particularly in AI, a wide range of players—from consulting firms to SIers (system integrators) and startups—are entering the field, competing fiercely for projects.
It was precisely in this context that I felt the interview highlighted how dentu Japan's "collaborative strength" – rooted in its origins as an advertising agency and its longstanding support for communication between companies and consumers – could become a major force driving projects to success.
