X-Ghost
: How to use it, features, and the business problems it solves
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What is X-Ghost?
X-Ghost is an autonomous AI operator for contact centers provided by Gen-AX Corp. (Minato, Tokyo), a wholly owned subsidiary of SoftBank Corp. Using a Speech-to-Speech model that understands and generates speech directly as audio, it answers phone inquiries 24/7, a monitoring AI applies guardrails to suppress inappropriate answers, and it calls internal system APIs during the conversation to carry procedures through. Officially launched in November 2025, it is in production at Sumitomo Mitsui Card and JAL Card and was selected for JR East's "Midori no Madoguchi" ticket-office AI dialogue trial. Pricing is not disclosed (as of November 2026).
Business problems it solves
About "X-Ghost"
What is X-Ghost?
X-Ghost is an autonomous AI operator for contact centers provided by Gen-AX Corp. (Minato, Tokyo), a wholly owned subsidiary of SoftBank Corp. The AI answers phone inquiries by voice in place of a human operator. Instead of a conventional IVR (interactive voice response) that makes callers choose menu numbers, the conversation starts from what the caller says; the AI answers on the spot what it can and hands the rest over to a human operator.
Gen-AX announced its development on July 16, 2025 and, after a trial with Sumitomo Mitsui Card, began offering it officially on November 10, 2025. Sales focus on enterprises whose contact centers have more than a certain number of seats. Pricing is not published; sales staff provide details after an inquiry (as of November 2026).
Source: Gen-AX Corp., official X-Ghost website
How to get started
Adoption starts from the inquiry form on the official website. The official process has four steps.
- Inquiry After you submit the form, sales staff contact companies that pass screening.
- Hearing A preliminary hearing is held to prepare a proposal that fits your requirements.
- Meeting / proposal Based on the hearing, Gen-AX proposes how to use X-Ghost.
- PoC / full deployment Once the proposal is agreed, a PoC (proof of concept) is run, and after testing the service is rolled out to the business unit.
In the Sumitomo Mitsui Card case study, after the PoC the team moved into production development, and Gen-AX's AI engineers and contact-center staff repeatedly tested and refined the scripts, the audio, the pauses and the back-channel responses. They started with "inquiries about suspicious notifications," confirmed safety and stability, and then expanded to high-volume inquiry types.
It listens and speaks in voice, so conversations break up less
X-Ghost uses a Speech-to-Speech model (an AI technique that understands and generates speech as audio without first converting it to text). According to the official launch release, this suppresses the information loss, response delays and error propagation of the conventional approach that chains speech recognition, language processing and speech synthesis, and makes the dialogue feel natural, like talking to a person. Gen-AX says it can also respond flexibly when callers interrupt mid-conversation.
On March 18, 2026, Gen-AX announced it had obtained two patents on the underlying voice-dialogue technology. One detects when the AI misreads numbers or kanji such as "12,000 yen" by checking the speech against the text it generates at the same time, and has it say the phrase again. The other runs several Speech-to-Speech models in parallel and, when congestion in the network or servers causes delays or disconnections, switches to another system while keeping the flow of the conversation. The release says both will be considered for phased implementation in X-Ghost.
A separate AI watches the conversation for safety
Besides the "operator AI" that talks to callers, X-Ghost has a "monitoring AI." The monitoring AI watches utterances and system behavior in real time, judges risk, and applies guardrail control (a mechanism that suppresses inappropriate answers).
In a pre-deployment evaluation at JAL Card, the AI-completed answer accuracy was over 90%, the success rate for handing over to an operator (communicator) was over 90%, and the compliance rate met the standard, according to a joint press release by the three companies on April 15, 2026.
It answers while looking at internal systems
Depending on the flow of the conversation, X-Ghost can call the APIs of a company's internal systems and databases to look up and update information. The retrieved information is automatically reflected in the operator AI's conversation.
In the case of a major credit card company, the aim is for the AI to identify a customer's attributes and usage status (such as payment status and credit limit) from the database, judge the situation itself, and complete procedures.
Source: Gen-AX Corp., official X-Ghost website (implementation consulting)
Features
- 24/7 voice support The AI operator answers phone inquiries at any hour.
- Operator AI Holds a natural conversation with the caller and understands the intent of the question. It also handles interruptions mid-conversation.
- Monitoring AI Monitors utterances and system behavior in real time and keeps the dialogue safe with risk assessment and guardrail control.
- System (API) integration Accesses internal systems according to the context of the conversation, gathers information instantly and reflects it in the conversation.
- Implementation consulting Supports implementation tailored to your operations. Together with the official launch, Gen-AX began offering a set of implementation support tools with industry-specific templates and a program run with consulting partners such as JDSC Inc. and SIGMAXYZ Inc.
Pricing
Pricing and contract terms are set individually according to the scope and scale of the operations being automated.
Track record and reputation
The following deployments and selections have been announced on the official website and in press releases (as of November 2026).
01Production deployments
- Sumitomo Mitsui Card — Service started December 3, 2025. At a contact center receiving more than about 500,000 phone inquiries a month, phase 1 covered inquiries about suspicious notifications impersonating the company, and phase 2 (February 2026) expanded to inquiries when a card cannot be used. Part of the comprehensive business alliance Sumitomo Mitsui Card and SoftBank concluded in May 2025
- JAL Card — Deployed in its contact center on April 15, 2026 (starting with some lines). Reduces the time it took to reach the right desk and unnecessary transfers under the conventional IVR by hearing and routing callers through dialogue
02Trial
- JR East — Selected for an AI dialogue trial at "Midori no Madoguchi" ticket offices in some stations (announced June 9, 2026). The trial tests whether organizing and confirming requests such as route, date and time, number of travelers and discounts through dialogue with AI makes buying tickets smoother. X-Ghost handles part of an initiative JR East runs with several AI-related services
Source: Joint press release by Japan Airlines, JAL Card and Gen-AX (April 15, 2026)
In the Sumitomo Mitsui Card case study (published July 2026), the person in charge said:
"As for waiting time, it has dropped to zero with the AI operator. I think this has clearly led to a stable response system." (Tomomi Oho, Tribe Lead, AI Innovation Design Department, Operation Services Division, Sumitomo Mitsui Card Co., Ltd.)
The same case study notes that about half of the "inquiries when a card cannot be used," which account for just over 10% of all inquiries, now reach the AI operator first, and that all calls handled by the AI operator are monitored daily, with only a few cases a day at most needing follow-up. Sumitomo Mitsui Card aims to have the AI operator handle the majority of contact-center inquiries by the end of fiscal 2028.
How it differs from other AI phone services
X-Ghost is an AI operator for companies with large contact centers that combines natural Speech-to-Speech voice dialogue, safety control by a monitoring AI, and API integration with internal systems. Its major customers cite as an expectation the hands-on support based on the know-how from trials and development at SoftBank's own contact centers.
| Product | Provider | Price (public information) | Features |
|---|---|---|---|
| X-Ghost | Gen-AX Corp. (wholly owned by SoftBank) | Not disclosed (inquiry) | Speech-to-Speech voice dialogue, monitoring-AI guardrails, internal API integration. In production at Sumitomo Mitsui Card and JAL Card |
| AI Worker VoiceAgent | AI Shift, Inc. (CyberAgent group) | Not disclosed (request materials / inquiry) | Specialized agents such as intent identification; combines scenario-based and autonomous dialogue. Used by 400+ companies |
| IVRy | IVRy Inc. | Free plan 0 JPY/month; paid from 3,980 JPY/month (excl. tax) | Automated phone answering. Start on the free plan and keep your current number by forwarding calls |
| AIさくらさん | Tifana.com Inc. | Initial fee + monthly fee (quoted individually) | Phone, chat and avatar products. A dedicated CS team handles operation once you hand over materials |
| Monobot | TRING, Inc. (US) | Credit-based, Starter from 200 USD/month | A no-code platform for building voice and chat AI agents |
| KARAKURI | KARAKURI Inc. | GeN: initial fee from 500,000 JPY, monthly from 400,000 JPY | AI agents specialized for customer support, centered on chat and operator assistance |
Details for other products are as of the check dates stated on each product page.
If you want to start small with phones at a store or a small business, IVRy is a candidate; if you want to build your own voice agents, consider Monobot. If you want AI to handle procedures while referring to internal systems at a contact center receiving hundreds of thousands of calls a month, X-Ghost and AI Worker VoiceAgent are candidates.
Other services from the provider
Besides X-Ghost, Gen-AX offers the following services.
- X-Boost A knowledge-support SaaS platform in which generative AI supports inquiry-response work at contact centers and elsewhere. The AI analyzes extensive manuals so operators can find the answers they need more easily.
- AX consulting Consulting that visualizes on-site work and redesigns business processes on the premise of AI. It supports drawing up a roadmap that places X-Ghost and X-Boost into the reorganized operations.
Frequently asked questions (FAQ)
How much does X-Ghost cost?
Pricing is not published on the official website. If you consult via the inquiry form, sales staff contact companies that pass screening.
Who provides X-Ghost?
Gen-AX Corp., a wholly owned subsidiary of SoftBank Corp. Its head office is at 1-7-1 Kaigan, Minato-ku, Tokyo, and its President & CEO is Shinichiro Isago.
Can small and medium-sized companies adopt it?
The official launch release says sales focus on enterprises whose contact centers have more than a certain number of seats. If you want to start with small-scale phone handling, also compare automated phone answering services that publish their prices.
Can calls be transferred to human operators?
Yes. In the JAL Card and Sumitomo Mitsui Card cases, the AI answers what it can and passes inquiries that need more advanced handling to human operators.
Does it support channels other than phone?
The official website lists next-generation customer support that starts from voice and expands to multimodal as a "mechanism it aims for." The current offering centers on voice support over the phone.
The information on this page is based on what was published on the official website and in press releases as of November 2026. Please check the official website for the latest specifications and pricing.
