[From Clothing Rental] From "Just Deploying" AI to a Revenue-Generating Entity: Launch of the Accompanying Support Service 'lumicrew' that Nurtures AI Like a New Employee
brista Inc., which operates the clothing rental service "Brista," has launched 'lumicrew,' an accompanying support service that "nurtures AI chatbots like new employees" to achieve not only inquiry responses but also product proposals, sales generation, and service improvements, promoting AI utilization in companies.
📋 Article Processing Timeline
- 📰 Published: April 24, 2026 at 21:53
- 🔍 Collected: April 24, 2026 at 13:31
- 🤖 AI Analyzed: April 25, 2026 at 00:19 (10h 48m after Collected)
brista Inc. (Headquarters: Kusatsu City, Shiga Prefecture; Representative Director: Mizuki Takahashi; hereinafter "brista"), which operates the clothing rental service "Brista," has launched 'lumicrew,' an accompanying support service that "nurtures AI chatbots like new employees" to achieve not only inquiry responses but also product proposals, sales generation, and service improvements.
■ Background and Challenges: Is AI at customer touchpoints being "neglected" despite advancing AI utilization?
According to a survey by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (announced in 2025), AI utilization in Japanese companies is rapidly progressing, with approximately 56% of large companies and 34% of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) (※1) having established policies for generative AI utilization. AI adoption has become an unavoidable trend.
On the other hand, for AI chatbots at customer touchpoints, many companies remain in a state of "just deploying," and they are not being fully utilized. As a result, the following challenges arise:
・Remaining a tool that only answers routine questions
・Ending in a Q&A format, unable to delve deeper into customer needs
・Ultimately leading to human support
"Unable to resolve with FAQs, unable to resolve with chatbots, ultimately making an inquiry"
—This experience is becoming "commonplace" for many users.
▶ What is required is "nurturing operation"
What companies need is "nurturing operation," where AI is not just an automatic response tool but is "nurtured" to become an entity that extracts customer needs and connects them to proposals and sales.
Brista has demonstrated that AI can have "sales functions that uncover potential customer needs" by developing and operating the proposal-type AI chatbot "Hazuki" in its own clothing rental service and continuously improving it based on dialogue logs.
To expand this operational know-how to other industries, 'lumicrew' was developed.
※1 Source: Referenced and summarized from "Survey on Trends in Research and Development of Latest Information and Communication Technologies and Digital Utilization Domestically and Internationally" by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (2025).
■ Two Features of 'lumicrew'
This service is not just about system provision; it aims to realize client companies' business growth through accompanying support that "nurtures AI like new employees."
① Knowledge Construction Support to Enable "Product Proposals"
Beyond general Q&A support, we professionally assist in designing and building knowledge (knowledge data) for AI to enable "product proposals" tailored to customer problems and usage scenarios.
② Continuous Improvement Support Utilizing Dialogue Logs
Regularly reviewing customer dialogue logs not only improves the accuracy of chatbot responses but also visualizes "what customers truly need." The insights gained are then linked to new product development and service improvement.
■ Utilization of Subsidies
This service may be eligible for eligible expenses (outsourcing/external contracting costs) such as the Small Business Sustainability Subsidy. If conditions are met, cases may receive up to 2/3 of the introduction costs. We will provide an estimate after hearing your needs for initial introduction costs. Feel free to consult us about subsidy utilization.
■ Free Trial Information
"Experience 'selling AI' before implementation."
Currently, we are offering a free trial.
We provide a working AI chatbot environment based on your company's anticipated Q&A, allowing you to confirm its effectiveness before implementation.
■ Implementation and Improvement Cases
[Case 1] AI Chatbot "Hazuki" for Clothing Rental "Brista" (in-house)
Knowledge was built not only for "how-to FAQs" but also for scene-specific proposals such as "business meetings" and "meeting son's parents." Furthermore, by analyzing input dialogue logs, customer pain points in styling were identified, directly leading to strengthened inventory lineups and service improvements.
[Case 2] AITONE, a Coffee Shop with Physical Store and Cafe
As a result of implementing a chatbot on their e-commerce site, there was no significant change in the number of inquiries, but a change was observed in the "quality" of inquiries.
Routine inquiries that previously accounted for a large portion, such as subscription cancellation/skipping and logging into My Page, decreased, creating an environment where staff could concentrate on matters requiring human judgment, such as product defects and individual support. Additionally, a self-resolution process for customers was established: "First try to resolve with the chatbot, and only inquire if unable to resolve."
As a result, the time spent on inquiry handling was reduced from approximately 2-3 hours per day to about 1-1.5 hours (up to approximately 50% reduction), leading to a reduction in operational workload.
Furthermore, dialogue logs revealed stumbling blocks during login and account creation, and distribution.
■ Background and Challenges: Is AI at customer touchpoints being "neglected" despite advancing AI utilization?
According to a survey by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (announced in 2025), AI utilization in Japanese companies is rapidly progressing, with approximately 56% of large companies and 34% of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) (※1) having established policies for generative AI utilization. AI adoption has become an unavoidable trend.
On the other hand, for AI chatbots at customer touchpoints, many companies remain in a state of "just deploying," and they are not being fully utilized. As a result, the following challenges arise:
・Remaining a tool that only answers routine questions
・Ending in a Q&A format, unable to delve deeper into customer needs
・Ultimately leading to human support
"Unable to resolve with FAQs, unable to resolve with chatbots, ultimately making an inquiry"
—This experience is becoming "commonplace" for many users.
▶ What is required is "nurturing operation"
What companies need is "nurturing operation," where AI is not just an automatic response tool but is "nurtured" to become an entity that extracts customer needs and connects them to proposals and sales.
Brista has demonstrated that AI can have "sales functions that uncover potential customer needs" by developing and operating the proposal-type AI chatbot "Hazuki" in its own clothing rental service and continuously improving it based on dialogue logs.
To expand this operational know-how to other industries, 'lumicrew' was developed.
※1 Source: Referenced and summarized from "Survey on Trends in Research and Development of Latest Information and Communication Technologies and Digital Utilization Domestically and Internationally" by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (2025).
■ Two Features of 'lumicrew'
This service is not just about system provision; it aims to realize client companies' business growth through accompanying support that "nurtures AI like new employees."
① Knowledge Construction Support to Enable "Product Proposals"
Beyond general Q&A support, we professionally assist in designing and building knowledge (knowledge data) for AI to enable "product proposals" tailored to customer problems and usage scenarios.
② Continuous Improvement Support Utilizing Dialogue Logs
Regularly reviewing customer dialogue logs not only improves the accuracy of chatbot responses but also visualizes "what customers truly need." The insights gained are then linked to new product development and service improvement.
■ Utilization of Subsidies
This service may be eligible for eligible expenses (outsourcing/external contracting costs) such as the Small Business Sustainability Subsidy. If conditions are met, cases may receive up to 2/3 of the introduction costs. We will provide an estimate after hearing your needs for initial introduction costs. Feel free to consult us about subsidy utilization.
■ Free Trial Information
"Experience 'selling AI' before implementation."
Currently, we are offering a free trial.
We provide a working AI chatbot environment based on your company's anticipated Q&A, allowing you to confirm its effectiveness before implementation.
■ Implementation and Improvement Cases
[Case 1] AI Chatbot "Hazuki" for Clothing Rental "Brista" (in-house)
Knowledge was built not only for "how-to FAQs" but also for scene-specific proposals such as "business meetings" and "meeting son's parents." Furthermore, by analyzing input dialogue logs, customer pain points in styling were identified, directly leading to strengthened inventory lineups and service improvements.
[Case 2] AITONE, a Coffee Shop with Physical Store and Cafe
As a result of implementing a chatbot on their e-commerce site, there was no significant change in the number of inquiries, but a change was observed in the "quality" of inquiries.
Routine inquiries that previously accounted for a large portion, such as subscription cancellation/skipping and logging into My Page, decreased, creating an environment where staff could concentrate on matters requiring human judgment, such as product defects and individual support. Additionally, a self-resolution process for customers was established: "First try to resolve with the chatbot, and only inquire if unable to resolve."
As a result, the time spent on inquiry handling was reduced from approximately 2-3 hours per day to about 1-1.5 hours (up to approximately 50% reduction), leading to a reduction in operational workload.
Furthermore, dialogue logs revealed stumbling blocks during login and account creation, and distribution.