Turning a Real Marriage Advisor into AI: How O-net Created “AI Ishikawa” to Connect with a New Generation

O-net Inc., a company operating a marriage support service, had identified the need to create new touchpoints with younger generations as one of its key priorities. With the widespread use of matching apps, there is also a growing need among people who are not yet ready to seriously consider marriage but simply want someone to talk to first.

To address this need, O-net focused on creating a new customer touchpoint by combining the expertise of a real-life marriage advisor with AI. This led to the creation of “AI Ishikawa-san,” an AI marriage advisor available through O-net’s official LINE account. Modeled after Mr. Ishikawa, one of O-net’s senior advisors, the AI character responds to a wide range of needs, including relationship and marriage consultations, fashion advice, date preparation, and chat message reviews.

Akatsuki AI Technologies was responsible for the end-to-end planning, design, and development of the chatbot. As O-net’s traditional customer acquisition model reached a turning point, why did the company choose to turn a real advisor into an AI character? We spoke with Mr. Bungo and Mr. Sonoda of O-net’s Corporate Strategy Division about the background of the project, the development process, and the response following its launch.

Creating New Touchpoints with People in Their 20s Through AI-Based Consultation

— What marketing challenges were you facing before launching AI Ishikawa-san?

O-net had long built its customer acquisition strategy around its “Marriage Chance Test.” After prospective customers completed an online diagnostic test through an advertisement, its call center would contact them and guide them toward an in-person consultation. However, this established model had begun to reach a turning point.

Mr. Bungo: The effectiveness of advertising had been declining year by year and even month by month, while customer acquisition costs continued to rise. We began to question whether we could continue relying on the same model. When we conducted research, we found that product understanding among people in their 20s was around 20 points lower than that of our competitors, and awareness was also declining. The challenge of reaching the demographic we needed to attract was becoming increasingly significant.

Many women join O-net while still in their 20s, making this an essential demographic for the company. However, O-net had not previously placed sufficient emphasis on social media and organic content, which are key communication channels for this generation.

The company therefore shifted toward strengthening communication through LINE and began highlighting one of its core strengths: its advisors. As part of this effort, O-net launched initiatives featuring its senior advisor, Mr. Ishikawa. Positive reactions to YouTube programs featuring him also provided momentum, and the idea for AI Ishikawa-san emerged in response to requests from users who wanted to receive advice directly from him.

Changes in the market environment also supported the concept.

Mr. Sonoda: More people are becoming exhausted by matching apps and dropping out, but there is nowhere for them to go afterward. At the same time, they are not necessarily ready to say, “I want to get married right now.” They simply want someone to talk to first. It would be impossible for people to handle every consultation manually, but AI could realistically serve that role. We believed AI could act as a buffer for this growing demand, help people work through their concerns, and eventually encourage them to take marriage more seriously.

The business challenge of increasing touchpoints with younger generations, particularly people in their 20s, and the user need to speak with someone before making the decision to marry came together in the concept of AI Ishikawa-san: an AI-powered service that delivers the knowledge and communication style of a real advisor.

Why O-net Chose Us — Speed, Business Understanding, and Proactive Risk Management

— What made you choose Akatsuki AI Technologies among the many AI development companies available?

Mr. Bungo: We were introduced through a referral, but the deciding factor was that, through our communication, we felt Akatsuki AI could match the speed we required and reliably support us all the way through launch. Our expectations grew through meetings, proposals, and discussions.

Mr. Sonoda: Akatsuki AI’s management team has experience in marketing, so we felt reassured that they could lead development with an understanding of both the business and marketing side. O-net is a marketing-driven company, and we compete by quickly adapting based on customer responses. We knew we could not develop this together with a partner that could not keep up with that pace.

Mr. Sonoda initially considered working with a large publicly listed systems integrator. However, he recalls that while such a company might be able to build a highly robust system, it would likely be difficult to expect the same level of involvement from the planning stage. He estimates that the project might have taken two to three times longer with another provider.

O-net had previously introduced AI chat systems twice, but in both cases, the initiatives ended simply with “a chatbot was built.” This time, Akatsuki AI proactively proposed AI guardrail design and approaches for handling sensitive data during the project, which helped build trust.

Project Approach — Turning Expert Knowledge into AI While Balancing Quality and Safety

— What was particularly difficult about turning a real marriage advisor into an AI character?

Mr. Sonoda: When you create an avatar based on a real person, you cannot allow the AI to say something that would be disrespectful to that advisor. If something the AI says were to spread on social media, the impact would ultimately come back to the individual. That was our biggest concern.

— With that challenge in mind, how was AI Ishikawa-san designed?

Mr. Sonoda: On the other side of that concern, what we expected was high response quality and an entertaining communication experience. If the experience was not enjoyable for users, they simply would not use it. Based on that idea, AI Ishikawa-san was designed around two key pillars.

The first was response quality that makes users think, “That makes sense.” By incorporating expertise from Mr. Ishikawa’s books and other materials, we aimed to make the responses more convincing.

At the same time, we wanted users to experience both practical problem-solving and entertainment. The service was not intended only for people who wanted to get married immediately, so it needed to respond to relationship concerns as well as marriage-related questions and provide enjoyable interactions such as fashion advice.

During development, information from Mr. Ishikawa’s books and interviews was used to organize not only his professional expertise but also the expressions and communication styles he would naturally use. At the same time, response guidelines, testing plans, and AI guardrails were designed to reduce the risk of inappropriate responses or statements that could incorrectly be presented as his personal views.

Collaboration — Supporting Business Decisions from the Planning Stage

— Was there any particular moment that stood out while working with Akatsuki AI on the project?

Mr. Bungo: My straightforward impression is that they understood our intentions very well. For example, around the same time, we published a book compiling the knowledge of our marriage advisors. Akatsuki AI moved quickly to incorporate that content into the AI and also conducted interviews with Mr. Ishikawa to learn the kinds of expressions he would naturally use.

Mr. Sonoda: It was extremely helpful that they joined us when the concept was still vague and worked with us to shape it. Everyone on O-net’s new business team was short on time, but Akatsuki AI’s project manager quickly understood a wide range of issues and clearly told us, “This is the only decision you need to make right now.” That made it much easier to move the project forward. There were also many occasions when they organized the issues and told us, “Please decide on this point at the next management meeting.”

In terms of risk management, Akatsuki AI also took an approach of identifying potential concerns from the beginning. This included creating response guidelines to define the quality of AI Ishikawa-san’s interactions, developing a testing plan and AI guardrails, considering data retention periods, and clearly outlining API usage costs.

Mr. Sonoda said that presenting these considerations upfront helped significantly reduce his concerns.

Results — Demonstrating the Potential of AI Characters, with Around 80% of Consultations Focused on Relationships

— What kind of response have you seen since the launch?

The release was positioned as a proof of concept (PoC), and no strict KPIs were set. Even so, the project led to several findings that exceeded expectations.

Mr. Bungo: We have the impression that many people use the service in connection with our YouTube program. In particular, around 80% of users are consulting about romantic relationships. This is an insight that would be difficult to obtain through other marketing initiatives focused specifically on marriage consultation.

Mr. Sonoda: What we wanted to test was whether users would genuinely engage in deep conversations with an AI based on a real advisor. The result showed that users do in fact have meaningful conversations with an AI avatar modeled after an expert. We were able to validate the usefulness of the AI character approach itself, which gave us a basis for considering our next steps.

There is also an episode that illustrates the quality of the AI’s responses. Today, even Mr. Ishikawa himself sometimes consults AI Ishikawa-san. Mr. Bungo described it as having become “almost like a shadow version of Ishikawa.”

— Looking back on the project, what stood out to you about Akatsuki AI’s support?

Mr. Sonoda: New development projects always begin with communicating domain knowledge to the development company. The speed and accuracy with which they understand that information, as well as whether they can intuitively understand the company culture, are extremely important. Akatsuki AI was excellent in this regard. Even with strong development or R&D capabilities, it is difficult to build a good product if the team is slow to understand the domain. After working together, I strongly felt that Akatsuki AI’s ability to get up to speed was outstanding.

Mr. Bungo: We had experimented several times, but how to use AI in the B2C domain remained an important topic for which the company had not yet found a clear answer. Because AI Ishikawa-san now exists, we are finally able to discuss what the next development should look like. In that sense, I believe this has become a very good case study for us.

Future Outlook — Preparing for an Era in Which AI Becomes a New Source of Advice

Mr. Bungo: There is a lot we cannot talk about regarding the future (laughs), but we will continue expanding our use of AI. In addition to internal tools, we feel there is still a great deal of potential for using AI in B2C settings where customers interact with it directly, and we intend to continue experimenting with many different approaches.

Mr. Sonoda: Relationships, marriage, and work are all areas in which people constantly have concerns, yet they cannot necessarily discuss everything with someone else. That is exactly why we believe demand for AI as a source of consultation will continue to grow. We want to expand the range of ways we use AI so that we can respond to those needs.