SHIFT Awarded Contract to Operate Sagamihara City’s Call Center
Building and Operating an AI-Powered Next-Generation Call Center to Enhance Citizen Services and Improve City Employee Productivity

SHIFT Inc. (“SHIFT,” headquartered in Minato-ku, Tokyo, Japan; Masaru Tange, CEO and Representative Director), which supports clients in developing and delivering software services and products that drive sales, hereby announces that it has been awarded a contract to operate the call center for Sagamihara City, Kanagawa(hereinafter “Sagamihara”), and commenced the project on April 1, 2026.

Under this project, SHIFT will build and operate an AI-powered next-generation call center to enhance citizen services and improve city employee productivity. By promoting automation and standardization of inquiry handling through AI, the project aims to shorten citizen waiting times and ensure consistent response quality, thereby improving convenience. At the same time, by reducing the operational load of routine tasks on city employees and enabling them to focus on specialized responsibilities, the initiative seeks to improve individual productivity and achieve overall operational standardization and advancement of call center operations.

Against the backdrop of labor shortages caused by the declining working-age population and the increasing complexity of inquiries due to diversifying citizen needs, the structure of inquiry-handling operations in local governments has become a nationwide challenge in Japan. In this context, AI-powered next-generation call centers are expected to serve as a new foundation for sustainable municipal administration. Sagamihara and SHIFT position this project as a pioneering initiative to realize administrative transformation in a depopulating society and aim to establish a next-generation municipal call center model leveraging AI and data.

[Background of Project Launch]
Sagamihara has accepted citizen inquiries through multiple channels—including telephone, email, and fax—and has worked to enhance the quality of citizen services through call center operations.

In recent years, inquiries to the city’s call center have increasingly concentrated in specific time periods, seasons, and service areas. The annual number of inbound calls has reached approximately 100,000. As the population ages, citizens’ needs diversify, and as digital transformation (DX) expands communication channels, the content of each inquiry has become increasingly complex and sophisticated. Amid a declining working-age population, transitioning to a new operational model that achieves both higher response quality and improved productivity has become essential to sustainably maintain citizen services.

In light of these circumstances, Sagamihara decided to launch this project to evolve its call center into a next-generation system centered on AI and data utilization, achieving both improved response quality and sustainable administrative operations.

To advance the project, Sagamihara required a partner with deep understanding of local government-specific business processes and strong AI implementation capabilities, as well as the ability to build and operate large-scale contact centers reliably and continuously drive improvements after launch.

SHIFT has a proven track record of AI implementation in local governments nationwide, including Amagasaki City, Hyogo and Shinagawa Ward, Tokyo, as well as experience in building and operating large-scale AI-powered contact centers for central government ministries and agencies. In addition to its project execution capabilities backed by these achievements, SHIFT’s operational optimization and business process improvement expertise cultivated in the Customer Success (CS) domain, along with its specialization in AI utilization and accuracy enhancement, were highly evaluated, leading to its selection as the contractor for this project.

[Project Overview]

Call Center Architecture Diagram

Under this project, SHIFT will build and operate an AI-powered next-generation call center system that serves as the core citizen engagement function, handling inquiries received via telephone, email, fax, and other channels in Sagamihara.

The project period spans approximately five years, from April 2026 to September 2031. Following a preparation period, full-scale operation of the next-generation call center is scheduled to commence in October 2026.

The next-generation call center will centrally handle citizen inquiries related to administrative services, including guidance and call transfers, first-line reception of complaints and requests, acceptance of applications and registrations, and information dissemination via social medias. It will also coordinate and escalate matters to relevant departments, supporting smooth interdepartmental collaboration across city hall operations.

Furthermore, by organizing and analyzing response data and citizen feedback, the call center will enhance FAQs and improve information delivery, contributing to the overall quality of administrative services. A system will also be established to flexibly respond to special operations during disasters and peak periods.

For the construction of the call center, the project will leverage the AI contact center platform “AICO,” developed and provided by SHIFT PLUS Inc. (“SHIFT PLUS,” headquartered in Kochi City, Kochi; Kengo Watanuki, Representative Director), a SHIFT Group company with extensive experience in the CS domain. By completing the processing, accumulation, and analysis of inquiry data within the platform, SHIFT will establish an operational environment that meets the high security standards required for government operations.

[Expected Benefits of the Next-Generation Call Center]
-Delivering High-Quality Citizen Support: “No Confusion”, “No Waiting”, and “No Unnecessary Transfers”
Through AI-driven automation of inquiry handling, consistent response quality will be maintained across multiple inquiry channels operated by the city, creating a reliable point of contact where citizens can seek assistance with confidence. By reducing waiting times and minimizing unnecessary transfers or repeat inquiries, the city will establish a system capable of consistently delivering high satisfaction.

Even during emergencies such as disasters or infectious disease outbreaks, the system will enable the rapid and accurate dissemination of necessary information, functioning as a critical communication infrastructure between the city and its citizens.

-Enabling City Employees to Focus on Core Responsibilities Through More Productive Call Center Operations
In addition to automating inquiry handling, AI will automatically accumulate and analyze inquiry data and recommend response content to support city employees. This will reduce city employee workload and enable greater focus on high-priority responsibilities.

Moreover, accumulated inquiry data will be utilized for operational improvements and policy planning, contributing not only to improved individual productivity but also to the standardization and advancement of overall call center operations.

-Transforming Citizen Feedback into Early Indicators to Enable Proactive Policy Making and Operational Improvement
A predictive analytics dashboard will be established to visualize and analyze Voice of the Customer (VOC) data and inquiry volumes, enabling early detection of emerging issues across departments and facilitating proactive policy development and operational improvements.

In addition, a system will be implemented allowing supervisors to monitor inquiry content in real time, enabling early detection of customer harassment and ensuring appropriate response measures.

-Establishing a Sustainable Operational Framework and Continuous Improvement of Response Quality
Based on a clear division of roles between AI and human operators, a sustainable next-generation call center operational framework will be established to ensure stable medium- to long-term operations. The phased introduction and continuous enhancement of advanced technologies, including AI, will drive ongoing improvements in response quality.

[About the AI Contact Center Platform “AICO”]

AICO is an AI contact center platform developed and provided by SHIFT PLUS, a member of the SHIFT Group. Through AI utilization, AICO enables automated responses to inquiries, automatic accumulation of inquiry data, and real-time monitoring of inquiry trends, contributing to improved response quality and operational standardization.

AICO supports flexible deployment tailored to customer environments and requirements, ranging from cloud-based package offerings to on-premises environments that meet higher security requirements.