Who is James, and Why Did He Start the MicoVoice AI Call Business
📢 This article is also available in Japanese.
The Vision of a Business Leader
Hello! I’m James Mesbur. I’d like to take this opportunity to share a bit about my career, why I decided to start this business, and the vision that drives us. I hope you enjoy this light-hearted yet meaningful introduction!
Career Background: A Simple Journey of Growth
My career began at a small startup in the United States, where I worked on conversational AI and IVR (interactive voice response) systems. Over time, I took on increasingly larger responsibilities, eventually playing a key role in the company’s acquisition. This experience taught me the importance of identifying pain points and delivering real value to customers.
Later, I joined Rakuten in Japan as General Manager of Conversational AI Products. At Rakuten, I had the privilege of leading a diverse, international team and building scalable AI solutions for businesses. Now, at Micoworks, I’m excited to bring that expertise to help Japanese businesses harness the potential of Voice AI to solve their challenges and achieve their goals.
What is MicoVoice?
At MicoWorks, we provide a LINE marketing tool to help businesses strengthen their communication with customers. As we listened to our clients, one challenge became clear—they were struggling to handle the sheer volume of outbound calls they needed to make. Recognizing this urgent need, we developed MicoVoice, an AI-powered automated calling service designed to seamlessly extend their communication capabilities.
MicoVoice helps businesses overcome limitations in manpower and time constraints, allowing AI to handle outbound calls with efficiency while optimizing human resources and maximizing customer engagement and acquisition.
What makes MicoVoice truly unique is its ability to adapt to the nuances of the Japanese language, fine-tuning intonation and speech speed to sound as natural as a human speaker. But great conversations require more than just natural speech—which is why MicoVoice is equipped with essential tools like SMS integration, Whisper-assisted call transfers, and other features that ensure smooth adoption into existing workflows.
The results so far have been remarkable—businesses using MicoVoice have seen call performance matching, and in some cases exceeding, that of human operators. As we continue to evolve, we’re excited to push the boundaries of what AI-powered voice communication can achieve.
Listen to a MicoVoice Demo!
Why I Started This Business: Passion for Solving Problems
When I joined Micoworks, I began having conversations with our customers to understand their challenges. Many of them are recruiting companies, and while their specific operations vary, they share a few common pain points:
Lead Acquisition: Recruiting companies often have massive databases of potential candidates but lack the manpower to call everyone. This leads to missed opportunities to connect with qualified leads.
Reminders: Candidates frequently miss scheduled interviews and information sessions. While companies try to use LINE or email to send reminders, those messages are often ignored. Calling is much more effective—if someone answers—but live operators are expensive, and connection rates can be low.
With my background in AI-driven calling systems, I knew we could tackle these problems effectively. AI calls can optimize the timing and frequency of calls to maximize connection rates, take over repetitive manual tasks that waste live operators’ time, and allow those operators to focus on what really matters: closing the deal.
Case Study: How FujiArte Transformed Their Recruitment Process
One of our standout successes is with FujiArte, a staffing company specializing in manufacturing industries. Known for their expertise in connecting companies with skilled talent—particularly Brazilian workers—FujiArte excels in providing flexible, people-centered work opportunities. But even a company with their track record faced challenges when it came to scaling recruitment efforts efficiently.
Before implementing MicoVoice, FujiArte relied on an external call center to reach candidates. But with limited manpower, they couldn’t make nearly enough calls to fully tap into their candidate database. Many opportunities were left on the table, and they needed a better way to reach more people without overloading their team or budget.
Scaling Up Lead Generation
This is where MicoVoice stepped in. With our AI-powered calls, FujiArte was able to scale their outreach efforts dramatically, increasing their call volume by 12.5x per month. Achieving this manually would have taken their call center more than three months. And the best part? Their cost per application dropped to one-tenth of what it was before, making this not just a productivity win, but a financial one too.
Improving Connection Rates
One of FujiArte’s biggest hurdles was connecting with candidates in the first place. Live operators could only call once or twice before moving on, which left many candidates unreached. With MicoVoice, it became easy to automatically call back multiple times, at different times of the day, to ensure better chances of connecting. This simple yet effective adjustment boosted their connection rate to 21%, significantly improving their ability to engage candidates and fill positions faster.
Effective Reminders, Reduced No-Shows
Beyond lead generation, FujiArte used MicoVoice to handle reminders for interviews and workplace tours. By combining automated calls with SMS follow-ups for candidates who didn’t answer, they kept the process seamless and effective. This ensured candidates were well-informed, reduced no-shows, and freed up their team to focus on more complex tasks.
FujiArte’s team appreciated how these improvements didn’t just save time and money but also helped them engage candidates more effectively. Hearing positive feedback from their colleagues reinforced that they were on the right path—and that automation could complement their human efforts, not replace them.
FujiArte’s Takeaway: Smart Automation for Better Recruitment
With MicoVoice, FujiArte transformed their recruitment process, reaching more candidates, improving connection rates, and optimizing their operations. It was a clear example of how leveraging AI in the right way can address challenges and unlock new opportunities for growth.
For us, FujiArte’s success highlighted the power of pairing thoughtful automation with a deep understanding of customer needs. We’re excited to continue learning, improving, and helping more businesses achieve similar results.
In future posts, I’ll share more about what’s next for MicoVoice: the features we’re working on, the industries we’re targeting, and the lessons we’re learning along the way. Thank you for following along, and I look forward to sharing more with you soon!
Want to see how MicoVoice can boost your outbound calls and engagement? Contact our sales team for a demo or to discuss your needs!
James Mesbur