92% satisfaction! avatarin used GPT-Realtime to turn appliance store service into a 24/7 experience

Hi, it's Shii! Today I've got a story from OpenAI News about AI actually helping run real store service, and there are solid numbers to back it up!

OpenAI News openai.com

What was announced?

According to OpenAI News, avatarin, an AI customer service company spun out of ANA Holdings, built a shopping assistant called the "Kurashi-Marugoto AI Agent" using OpenAI's GPT-Realtime. Working with electronics retailer Yamada Denki, the agent lets customers have natural voice conversations to get help choosing products and making purchase decisions.

Why it matters

Japan's electronics retailers are known for knowledgeable staff who can walk you through a purchase, but store hours and staffing are limited. avatarin is trying to extend that same "trusted salesperson" experience beyond business hours, and in multiple languages. It's a notable example of how far AI can go in standing in for the quality of in-person service at a retailer that's short-staffed.

What changes

With this agent, customers can ask about products late at night or early in the morning, by voice or text. Because it's multilingual, customers who aren't comfortable in Japanese get the same experience too. For the store, it means covering hours that staff can't, without missing out on the chance to help a customer.

Dive Deep

The write-up shared some of the technical details:

• GPT-Realtime unifies voice, text, and visual understanding in a single interface
• Retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) keeps answers grounded in accurate product data while staying conversational
• Yamada Denki's own sales know-how is built into the conversation design, so the agent proactively suggests things instead of just answering questions
• The agent adapts to shifting customer preferences while staying within guardrails that keep it focused on the shopping experience
• OpenAI also helped with prompt structuring and API cost optimization

During a two-week public trial, about 30,000 people used the agent, and 92% of survey responses were positive, with some customers even saying it was "easier to talk to than an actual sales associate." avatarin's longer-term vision is "One Intelligence. One Brand. Every interface," delivering the same context and brand experience across web, phone, and physical stores.

Wrap-up

• avatarin built a multilingual "Kurashi-Marugoto AI Agent" for Yamada Denki using GPT-Realtime
• About 30,000 people used it during a two-week public trial, with 92% positive feedback
• It combines RAG, unified voice/text/visual understanding, and Yamada Denki's sales expertise to make proactive suggestions
• avatarin's goal is a consistent service experience across web, phone, and in-store

Worth a read if you're thinking about AI in retail or customer service, or curious how a voice AI agent like this gets built!