PKSHA ChatAgent
: How to use it, features, and the business problems it solves
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What is PKSHA ChatAgent?
PKSHA ChatAgent (formerly PKSHA Chatbot / BEDORE Conversation) is an enterprise AI chatbot from PKSHA Technology, listed on the TSE Prime Market. Combining generative AI with proprietary algorithms, it answers inquiries automatically and autonomously analyzes unresolved cases and proposes improvements. Used by major companies such as NTT Docomo and Bank of Kyoto, it is officially reported as No.1 in chatbot sales share in Japan. Pricing is not disclosed (contact required).
Business problems it solves
About "PKSHA ChatAgent"
What is PKSHA ChatAgent?
PKSHA ChatAgent is an enterprise AI chatbot / conversational AI agent provided by PKSHA Technology Inc. (securities code 3993), a company listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange Prime Market. Its former name was PKSHA Chatbot, and before that BEDORE Conversation; the current name took effect on August 5, 2025. Although the name has changed, all three refer to the same product lineage.
Combining generative AI with PKSHA's proprietary algorithms, the AI selects the best answer from multiple candidates and asks clarifying questions when a query is ambiguous. What sets it apart is that it does not stop at answering: the AI autonomously analyzes the causes of unresolved inquiries and proposes improvement measures, keeping post-deployment maintenance load low by design. The official site describes it as "Japan's No.1 AI chatbot by market share," and it is in production at major companies such as NTT Docomo and Bank of Kyoto.
(sales in the year to Sep 2024)
(per official site)
(per official site)
(official announcement, Dec 2025)
The name has changed twice — how it relates to BEDORE Conversation and PKSHA Chatbot
Researching this product turns up three different names, but they are renames of the same product, not separate products. Knowing the history prevents confusion when reading older articles and case studies.
- BEDORE Conversation — A deep-learning dialogue engine with strong Japanese-language capabilities, developed and provided by BEDORE Inc., a subsidiary of PKSHA Technology. Case studies such as Mitsubishi Corporation date from this era.
- PKSHA Chatbot (from October 2022) — Renamed as part of the PKSHA brand unification in autumn 2022, following a group reorganization (in April 2022, PRAZNA was renamed PKSHA Communication and BEDORE was renamed PKSHA Workplace). It was provided by PKSHA Communication Inc.
- PKSHA ChatAgent (from August 5, 2025) — Renamed to signal the evolution "from chatbot to AI agent"; PKSHA Voicebot became PKSHA VoiceAgent at the same time. On the corporate side, PKSHA Communication and PKSHA Workplace were merged into PKSHA Technology on July 1, 2025, under an internal company system.
PKSHA has also renamed its product family from "PKSHA AI SaaS" to "PKSHA AI Agents." If a search under an old name leads you to outdated pricing or feature information, check the current wording on the official site.
How to use
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Request materials or make an inquiry
Download product materials from the official site's "資料ダウンロード" (document download) page. Pricing is provided through document requests and inquiries and is not published on the website. Product demo videos are also available on the official site.
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Prepare FAQ data and knowledge
Organize your existing FAQs and knowledge base. If you also use the FAQ system "PKSHA FAQ," its FAQ data can be linked directly, avoiding duplicate data management.
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Initial setup and tuning
Configure inquiry categories and answer candidates during onboarding. PKSHA emphasizes hands-on support for adopting companies.
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Deploy to your channels
Publish it as a customer-facing window on websites and e-commerce sites, or as an internal inquiry desk. In published case studies, Iris Ohyama connected it to Slack for internal product-knowledge search by its sales force.
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Iterate on improvements from conversation logs
After launch, the AI autonomously analyzes why inquiries went unresolved and proposes improvement measures. The design philosophy is that operators should not have to constantly rewrite scenarios by hand.
Key features
01Answer
Returns answers aligned with user intent using generative AI and proprietary algorithms.
- Best-answer selection — The AI selects and presents the best answer from multiple candidates
- Clarifying questions to probe intent — For ambiguous or incomplete inquiries, the AI proactively asks follow-up questions grounded in company knowledge to pinpoint the goal (enhanced in the December 2025 conversational AI agent update)
- Context-aware answer generation — Generates appropriate answers on the spot with an understanding of the whole conversation flow
02Protect
Provides the risk controls needed to put generative AI at customer touchpoints.
- Prevention of wrong answers and derailment — Control functions prevent answers from going off track, so staff can operate the chat environment with confidence
- Defense against malicious input — Protection designed with prompt-injection-style attacks in mind
03Improve
The AI also handles post-answer operations and maintenance.
- Analysis of unresolved cases with improvement proposals — Analyzes inquiries that were not resolved and autonomously proposes improvement measures
- Response-quality evaluation and suggestions — Based on customer-interaction history, the AI evaluates response quality and proposes improvements
- Data integration with PKSHA FAQ — Links FAQ-system data to the conversational AI, preventing duplicate management
- Handover to human agents — Seamlessly escalates inquiries the AI cannot resolve to human staff
Pricing
Pricing is not disclosed (contact required). As of August 19, 2026, no prices are published on the official site, which instead directs prospects to "check the product overview, features, and pricing in the materials" via document request.
| Item | Details (official wording as of August 19, 2026) |
|---|---|
| Initial / monthly fees | Not disclosed (provided via document request or inquiry) |
| Contract unit | Business entities |
| How to apply | Document download / inquiry form on the official site |
Third-party IT product databases (such as an explanatory article on Kigyo Log updated in October 2024) also state that "pricing plans are not public and require an inquiry," and no reliable public price estimates could be confirmed. It is reasonable to treat this as an enterprise product with individual quotes.
Free plan / trial
There is no free plan. As of August 19, 2026, the official site also makes no mention of a free trial. To evaluate before purchasing, the entry points are the official product demo videos and document requests. Note that PKSHA's internal-facing product "PKSHA AI Helpdesk" offers a free demo request, but that is a separate product.
Japanese language support
Everything can be done in Japanese. The predecessor, BEDORE Conversation, was developed as a domestic dialogue engine with strengths in Japanese-language processing, and handling Japanese inquiries remains the core of the product.
- UI and admin console — Japanese. The official site, materials, and support are in Japanese
- Input/output — Automated responses to Japanese inquiries are the primary use case. Multilingual support is not specified on the current official pages, so confirm via inquiry if needed
- Support — Japanese-language support from a domestic vendor, with hands-on onboarding assistance
Reputation and track record
Official case studies are published with company names and figures across industries.
01Results in customer support
- NTT Docomo — Replaced a keyword-matching chatbot; handles over 1,000 FAQs with a 30% improvement in self-resolution rate
- Bank of Kyoto — Deployed bank-wide, internally and externally, driving DX through communication reform
02Results in internal support
- Mitsui Fudosan — Adopted PKSHA Chatbot (as it was then named) after comparing more than 10 vendors; cut inquiries by 900 per month and automated about 40% with AI
- Mitsubishi Corporation — Rolled out to all employees as part of its Digital Workplace initiative
- Iris Ohyama — Improved searchability of over 5,000 product-knowledge items; raised sales productivity via Slack integration
On market share, based on the research report "Current Status and Outlook of the Automated Dialogue System Market, 2025 Edition," the product is officially reported as No.1 in sales share in the chatbot category (its sister product PKSHA VoiceAgent likewise holds No.1 in the voicebot category).
Which PKSHA product should you choose? — Relationship to PKSHA FAQ and AI Helpdesk
PKSHA ChatAgent is a standalone product, but in practice it is offered as one member of the product family "PKSHA AI Agents" (formerly PKSHA AI SaaS). Since several products have similar names, here is how the roles break down.
01PKSHA ChatAgent — an AI chatbot that answers through dialogue
The product on this page. It resolves inquiries through chat conversations on websites and internal channels, and can be used for both customer-facing and internal support.
02PKSHA FAQ — an FAQ system for building and operating FAQ sites
Formerly OKBIZ. for FAQ. An FAQ system covering creation, publishing, analytics, and improvement, officially reported as running on more than 1,500 sites with the No.1 share among FAQ systems. Its FAQ data can be linked with ChatAgent: PKSHA FAQ serves the "search and read" channel while ChatAgent serves the "ask by chat" channel.
03PKSHA AI Helpdesk — an internal helpdesk that lives entirely in Teams
A product that consolidates internal inquiries into Microsoft Teams. It resolves questions in three steps — automated FAQ answers, RAG answers referencing internal documents, then human handling — and auto-generates FAQs from response logs. It uses Azure OpenAI Service. Choose this if you want to adopt an internal helpdesk as a complete system.
04Other products and packages
These include PKSHA VoiceAgent (formerly PKSHA Voicebot) for automating phone support, PKSHA Speech Insight for call-audio analysis, and PKSHA Knowledge Stream for generating Q&As from documents. There is also "PKSHA AI FAQ Assistant," a package combining FAQ + Knowledge Stream + ChatAgent aimed at maximizing self-resolution rates in a single bundle.
Per the official lineup, the split is: ChatAgent alone if you "just want a chatbot," PKSHA FAQ if you are "starting from FAQ-site groundwork," and AI Helpdesk if you want "internal inquiries handled in Teams."
How it differs from other tools
Compared with the AI chatbot and FAQ products it is most often shortlisted against in Japan, PKSHA ChatAgent's position is "enterprise-grade, undisclosed pricing, autonomous improvement."
| Product | Provider | Characteristics | Pricing disclosure |
|---|---|---|---|
| PKSHA ChatAgent | PKSHA Technology (TSE Prime) | Generative AI × proprietary algorithms; autonomously runs analysis-to-improvement for unresolved cases | Not disclosed |
| Helpfeel | Helpfeel | Search-first FAQ centered on intent-prediction search; claims a 98% search hit rate | Not disclosed |
| Chat Plus | Chat Plus | Scenario-based + generative AI + human chat; low pricing from 1,500 yen/month | Public |
| Support Chatbot | User Local (TSE Prime) | In-house NLP engine; dedicated support included; LGWAN-compatible | Not disclosed |
| RICOH Chatbot Service | Ricoh Japan | Build Q&As in Excel; Q&A type from 18,000 yen/month (excl. tax) | Partially public |
- Helpfeel — Puts its weight on "letting users find via search" rather than "answering through dialogue." A comparison target if improving your FAQ site is the main goal
- Chat Plus — A domestic chatbot you can start cheaply. The opposite end of the spectrum if you want to start small
- Support Chatbot — Another enterprise chatbot built on domestic NLP; LGWAN compatibility matters for government and municipal projects
- RICOH Chatbot Service — Known for its Excel-based simplicity; often compared when line-of-business teams want to lead the rollout
- Intercom Fin AI — An overseas autonomous support AI; its outcome-based pricing per resolution highlights a very different pricing philosophy
FAQ
Q. How much does it cost?
Pricing is not disclosed. No prices are published on the official site; they are provided individually through document requests and inquiries. No concrete figures are publicly available from third-party media either (as of August 19, 2026).
Q. Is there a free trial?
The official site does not mention a free trial. Product demo videos and document requests are the entry points for evaluation.
Q. Is this a different product from PKSHA Chatbot or BEDORE Conversation?
It is the same product. BEDORE Conversation was renamed PKSHA Chatbot in October 2022, then PKSHA ChatAgent on August 5, 2025.
Q. Can it be used for internal inquiries?
Yes. The official site presents both customer-facing and internal domains, and internal-use case studies from Mitsui Fudosan and Mitsubishi Corporation are published. However, if you want to adopt a Teams-based internal helpdesk as a complete system, the separate product PKSHA AI Helpdesk is the fit.
Q. Are there safeguards against generative-AI hallucinations?
Officially, the product includes control functions that prevent wrong answers and conversational derailment, plus defenses against malicious input. Rather than relying entirely on generative AI, its design controls answer candidates with proprietary algorithms.
Q. Can individuals use it?
It is a business product with no individual plans. Contracts and inquiries assume corporate customers.
Provider
The provider is PKSHA Technology Inc. (headquarters: Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo; CEO: Katsuya Uenoyama). Founded in October 2012 as an AI algorithm company, it listed on TSE Mothers in September 2017 and moved to the TSE Prime Market in September 2024 (securities code 3993).
The product was originally developed by subsidiary BEDORE Inc. and, after the 2022 group reorganization, provided by PKSHA Communication Inc.; on July 1, 2025, that company and PKSHA Workplace Inc. were merged into the parent, and the product is now provided under PKSHA Technology's internal company system. The AI SaaS official site also lists group sales company PKSHA Associates Inc. as an operator. The "PKSHA AI Agents" product family is officially reported to have more than 7,000 agents in operation across Japan.
The information on this page is based on what is published on the official website as of August 2026. Features and pricing are subject to change; please check the official website for the latest information.
