Case Study: SMBC Nikko Securities achieves scalable, high-quality contact-center support with NTT Communications' COTOHA AI

One of Japan’s highest-quality contact centers Automatic AI response is an additional strength

SMBC Nikko Securities, a full‑service securities firm in the Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group and long recognized for top contact‑center quality (HDI 3‑star for 11 years), faced a growing volume of customer inquiries as more clients used its Direct Course and online services. The company needed to scale support capacity without compromising its high service standards.

SMBC Nikko deployed NTT Com’s COTOHA AI chatbot on LINE to handle natural‑language Japanese inquiries and hand off unresolved cases to human operators. About 70% of LINE users now start with the chatbot, speeding responses, freeing operators to focus on complex cases, reducing overtime and holiday work, and improving resource utilization and accessibility — with plans to add account verification and transactional capabilities while maintaining service quality.

SMBC Nikko Securities

Hideki Inada

Tokyo Contact Center Manager