The other day, when I was gathering information about university admission procedures, the only aspect that irritated me was the long waiting times. Yes, I had certain doubts as I was unaware of the process. So, I sought help on the respective university's website. To my surprise, many of them had a slow response rate.
But Georgia State University stood out. I loved their customer support approach. They have a higher education chatbot named Pounce. I asked Pounce to resolve my queries, and the answers were right in front of my eyes instantly. Indeed, we want everything to be resolved quickly. After all, it is the age of swipe-and-move-on. So, if higher educational institutions still don't offer an immediate solution for student engagement, they will look for an alternative.
Higher education chatbots can be your saviour here. Yes, artificial intelligence has reached this far. The use of artificial intelligence in the education sector is so massive that, in 2022, it reached $4 billion. Researchers have revealed that this growth can result in a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of more than 10% from 2023 to 2032.
This indicates introducing a personalized learning approach in the higher education sector. Worried about whether higher education chatbots are worth it? Let’s find out what the higher education chatbots store for you.
What are higher education chatbots?
Have you ever seen a virtual assistant that functions like a human? These higher education chatbots do exactly that! The primary purpose of a higher education chatbot is to provide support to the institution and to stimulate more personalized human communication.
For example, you have a query about the admission process of a particular college. You don’t know how to pay the fee. Here, you can ask the college chatbot to help you. Instantly, you will receive all the steps you must follow to process the admission fees. Higher education chatbots are no longer limited to providing automated answers. Now, they are even more personal and customized.
These chatbots feature natural language processing (NLP), machine learning, artificial intelligence, and augmented reality to handle tasks that provide better student service. Furthermore, you can integrate these chatbots with an existing CRM, SIS, or LMS platform to deliver more accurate responses. In a study by the Railway Technical School in Bangkok, researchers implemented a LINE-based AI chatbot to help students make better educational choices. The results revealed that 86.15% of the students made certain academic decisions based on the chatbot's suggestions.
In fact, after implementing the higher education chatbot in California State University, Northridge, Elizabeth Adams, the associate vice president of undergraduate students, commented, “It (the chatbot) allowed us to be in touch with tens of thousands of students in a way I don’t think we would have been able to without the bot. It’s been a lifesaver in that sense.”
Why does higher education need AI-powered chatbots?
Your educational institution has a large number of students. Each student belongs to a different degree and academic course. Is it possible for any human resource to be fully armed with the educational information about each student? No! That’s arduous!
If you question the worth of higher educational chatbots, I must say that you are still unaware of their power. Let me help you.
- High volume of repetitive student inquiries: Every educational institution faces various daily queries, including admission processes, academic coursework, fee structures, course registration, exam dates, and more. Many students repeatedly ask about these aspects of higher education. To reduce such bottlenecks in communication, you need higher education chatbots.
- Expectations of students for instant digital support: Today’s new-age students are much more accustomed to using Alexa, Google Assistant, and Siri. So, they want everything done on commanding digital tools. This is where your higher education chatbot can help you. Once you integrate the chatbot into various messaging and social media platforms, students can resolve their issues using voice commands.
- Administrative workload challenges: Often, your university departments are stretched thin, especially during the admission, enrollment, and examination times. If you can implement a higher education chatbot here, many repetitive tasks can be handled by it. Therefore, your human force gets more time to dedicate to other critical tasks. This ensures that you allocate limited resources while implementing strategic moves.
Key benefits of chatbots in higher education
After you implement higher education chatbots, you can experience a dynamic change in how you interact with students. From enhancing operational efficiency to personalizing messages for every student, these AI chatbots are a powerful virtual assistant.
According to a market analysis report by Grand View Research, the global AI presence in the education market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 31.2% from 2025 to 2030. This growth hints at the upcoming massive usage and rapid rise of chatbots in the educational sector.
Here are the key benefits that educational organisations can enjoy after implementing a chatbot:
1. 24/7 availability for student queries
As already said, different students have different queries. And, none of your human resource agents can address these queries and answer them individually. This is where the educational chatbots come in as your saviour.
Your human agents are limited by working hours and time zones. However, higher education chatbots are available 24/7. Implementing chatbots in your educational institution’s online portal leads to minimal waiting times. Consistent and continuous access to accurate information helps students make the right decisions.
2. Personalized communication at scale
Now, your students are not satisfied with generic responses. Instead, they want your chatbot to understand their concerns and reply accordingly. Yes, your higher education chatbots are perfectly capable of this.
Since these higher education chatbots are equipped with NLP (natural language processing), SIS (student information systems), and LMS (learning management systems), they gain access to individual user data. These bots even adapt to a particular tone and style for individual students to build trust and concern.
3. Automation of routine administrative tasks
One of the major challenges for higher educational institutions is repetitive tasks. Thousands of students ask similar types of questions throughout the day, and it is a hassle for human resources to answer all these questions individually.
Here, a higher education chatbot generates automated responses to these queries. It acts like a digital front-desk assistant. The chatbot retrieves answers and accurate responses from your university's ERP system, reducing the administrative workload. Digital automation by chatbots means reduced human intervention and errors.
4. Enhanced student engagement and retention
One of the major challenges that higher educational institutions face is keeping students engaged. Think of the high level of competitors you have these days. So, the only way to stand out in this competitive market is to develop a strong bond with your students.
For this, nothing can be better than AI chatbots. These chatbots maintain a consistent and interactive communication with the students, both existing and prospective, to help them at the right time with the right information. Since they reach out to the students proactively, it fosters a sense of satisfaction, loyalty, and long-term academic success with the students.
5. Multilingual and inclusive support
Generally, higher educational institutions are open to students all over the globe. Naturally, several students apply who do not understand your native language. This is where a higher education chatbot comes into play.
These AI chatbots are supported with multilingual capabilities. This means that if you have any prospective students from Nigeria, the chatbot can guide them in their native language with ease. This improves the understanding between students and the university. Besides, with the help of such a functional chatbot, you can provide equal opportunities to students worldwide.
Types of higher education chatbots
Higher education chatbots are not just restricted to helping students academically. Now, they have expanded to meet diverse needs, including providing mental support, guiding the admission process, career placements, and more.
Based on these factors, these are different types of higher education chatbots you can focus on:
1. Admissions chatbots
Struggling with managing the admission process? Do you not have the human resources to help with student admissions? You need an admission chatbot here. Indeed, the entire university admission process is overwhelming. But with admission chatbots, you can streamline everything in simple steps.
Even if your students ask the silliest admission questions, this chatbot is all ears. Besides, the promptness of the admission chatbot does not keep the students waiting for long hours. A perfect example for this is the California State University, Northridge chatbot, CSUNny.
2. Academic support chatbots
Academic support chatbots guide students throughout their learning journey. They explain academic policies, provide answers to questions related to academic courses, and notify students of assignments and essential deadlines.
You can integrate an academic support chatbot with your institution’s LMS system to help students with real-time information on class lectures, examination dates, academic notes, homework resources, etc. The academic chatbot of Northwestern University, Canvas Chatbot, helps students by resolving technical queries and providing course access.
3. Administrative and finance bots
The function of administrative and finance chatbots is to take care of the administrative operations of your university or college. Often, you must have come across human errors in these sectors.
However, once you implement an administrative and finance chatbot in your university portal, not only does it reduce errors, but it also streamlines the entire work process. Right from managing fee payments to issuing student ID cards and scheduling appointments, these chatbots are a dealbreaker in this regard.
4. Mental wellness chatbots
Nowadays, institutions are taking care of their students' mental wellness. Indeed, some of the students fail to cope with the academic pressure and suffer from various mental issues. Indeed, you can employ a psychologist for this.
However, the mental wellness chatbot tracks the students' mental status daily, even before the psychologist arrives. Furthermore, the chatbot identifies emotional distress in students and advises them to seek professional counseling when needed. The chatbot at Loyola University, in partnership with Tess (an AI mental health chatbot), provides access to mental counselors and offers students helpful mental health tips.
5. Career and placement bots
As you can understand from its name, the career placement chatbots help students with internship programs and relevant job opportunities. You certainly don’t want your university students to struggle with career growth and upliftment.
These career and placement chatbots help students build rock-solid resumes and prepare them for interviews. Since they are deeply integrated with platforms like LinkedIn and campus placement cells, these chatbots suggest job openings to students based on their skill set and academic background.
Top 10 chatbot use cases in higher education
.webp)
With each passing day, you must have noticed a massive demand for automation in the educational sector. Your students don’t just want academic support, but are also looking forward to complete guidance in a few minutes.
Here are the top 10 impactful use cases of chatbots in the higher education sector:
1. Admissions assistance
Undoubtedly, college or university admission is a lengthy process. Students need to be very careful with documentation and paperwork. Naturally, donuts arising from the student side are normal. Some also have certain misinformation.
Higher education chatbots can sort all of these. Once you implement the chatbot in the university's online portal, it gathers data about various aspects of the university. Likewise, it gives all responses to the students accordingly.
Further, every student gets automated and customized responses based on their queries. From addressing FAQs to sending admission reminders, these chatbots are a blessing to your educational institution.
2. Course selection guidance
Selecting the right course is crucial for academic success. Students consider various factors, such as their academic performance, skills, capabilities, and more. This is where your higher education chatbot comes into play. Based on the student's academic history and subject preferences, the chatbot suggests suitable courses. Here, your higher education chatbot functions just like an academic counselor.
These higher education chatbots fetch all the information from the LMS to help students with the right guidance. This avoids course scheduling clashes and suggests alternative courses to students, especially when seats are full.
3. Fee reminders and support
All students must keep a lot in mind: finishing the syllabus, attending classes, completing homework, improving their academic performance, and more. So, it’s quite obvious for them to forget to pay the fee at the right time.
Here, the higher education chatbot reminds the students about fee deadlines and refund policies. To help students with low fee pressure, the chatbot also notifies them of he scholarships and grants suitable for them.
Since the chatbots send proactive reminders, students don't need to worry about navigating the right portal. This reduces students' anxiety and improves the university's payment compliance.
4. Exam scheduling and updates
In most cases, you have probably encountered students who are afraid of exams. They lose their sleep and mental peace as the exam nears. Also, think of the logistical confusion that students go through. Incorrect exam venues, missed examination schedules, and last-minute exam changes - everything takes a toll on their mental health.
In this case, too, the higher education chatbot provides real-time updates on examinations. Indeed, various students are admitted to various courses. Naturally, the exam time and schedule will differ. However, the chatbot sends customized notifications to all. Not only does this prepare students for exams, but it also reduces unnecessary administrative queries.
5. Campus event notifications
A student's university life is not just limited to academics and examinations. It also involves various campus events. To help students actively enjoy and participate in all these events, these chatbots send notifications at the right time.
Whether it's a social event, a seminar, or a workshop, universities often struggle with low student participation. This happens due to a lack of awareness, but not anymore.
Higher education chatbots can promote your university or college event not only on campus but also beyond its walls. Your students get real-time alerts, RSVP functionality, and personalized suggestions.
6. Real-time FAQs
Think about the time when your human resource agents had to manually handle the student FAQs. It was time-consuming. Besides, they would fail to address all the queries. The result? The students would lose interest in the university. There was no relationship between the students and the university administration. However, after higher education chatbots gained attention, things changed.
These chatbots now answer all the FAQs with real-time and accurate information. They offer accurate, instant, and customized responses around the clock. This has reduced the waiting time for students. It has also lessened the burden of your human resource agent, as chatbots have taken up the responsibility of answering.
7. Mental health support
Most students complain of burnout due to examination stress. These days, students suffer from anxiety, stress, and other mental issues. Here, higher education chatbots can make a significant impact.
Although these chatbots can never replace human therapists, they can help identify mental health issues in students. Since AI powers these tools, these chatbots function like virtual wellness assistants, providing first-line emotional support to students. They check in with the students' mental health every day.
Worrying about the privacy of your life data? Well, these higher education chatbots are completely secure and ensure complete confidentiality. Your students get to chat with these chatbots freely and discuss their emotional and mental health.
8. New student onboarding
Think of the excitement and adrenaline rush that first-year students go through. They come up with a fresh mind, hoping to experience a lot of new stuff. Here, if you can offer your new generation students the experience of automation with the help of chatbots, it is sure to develop a better relationship with them.
Since these students are new to college or university life, they are unfamiliar with the entire process. Everything seems very new to them. To ensure they do not get overwhelmed, these chatbots help students with timetables, ID cards, hostel allocation, class locations, and more. In short, higher education chatbots serve as a guiding light for new students by improving orientation and encouraging future student participation.
9. Job and internship guidance
One of the top priorities of the students is to build a secure career. Every student dreams of being placed at a reputed organization to add more credibility to their professional career. Interestingly, your university or college education chatbot can provide suitable internships and placements to your students.
Sounds dreamy? Let me explain. These higher education chatbots analyze a student's skill set, academic background, and certifications to provide them with a perfect career choice.
This reduces the workload and efforts of your human administrators. These chatbots also notify students about interviews, job placements, and upcoming deadlines. Additionally, these chatbots offer tutorials on interview preparation and skill development.
10. Feedback and survey collection
You have been using traditional methods to engage with your students. You send long emails and boring messages to conduct surveys and gather student feedback. Results? Low response rates.
However, higher education chatbots have completely altered the scenario. These chatbots now send short and engaging messages and notifications to students, making them more likely to participate in surveys and feedback collection, and saving them time.
The chatbot gathers data from these micro-conversations with the students. You can analyze this data later and make the necessary changes based on your students' demands. Chatbots also help educational organizations with internal audits and accreditations.
Real-world examples of higher education chatbots
Several higher education institutions have embraced and implemented chatbots in their online portal. So, what are you waiting for?
Want to know if these organizations are thriving after introducing chatbots? Let’s take a look at some real-world higher education chatbot examples and how they are enhancing the educational process.
1. California State University, Northridge
The chatbot of California State University, Northridge initially targeted to help only the first-year students in the hope of bolstering retention. However, the chatbot's success led the university to make it available to the whole student body.
After the implementation of the chatbot, the rate at which it can handle student queries has risen from 50% and 60% to 80%. During COVID-19 in 2020, the chatbot could send 42,000 messages. Besides, the bot contains a knowledge base of 3000 students. The chatbot's effectiveness lies in the time it takes to answer student queries. It’s only 10 to 15 seconds.
With time, students have appreciated how CSUNny has supported them throughout their academic careers. It has improved the university's retention rates and student graduation rates.
2. Northwestern University
Northwestern University has developed Canvas Bot, a powerful AI-based chatbot, and integrated it within its LMS to provide 24/7 support to students. Since the chatbot's pilot launch, it has evolved significantly.
By 2023, the chatbot was successful in resolving queries of the students by 92% without any human intervention. Besides, the chatbot could also handle technical issues of the university and consistently solve them by 80% to 90%. Regarding student engagement, there has been an enhancement of 50% from 2021 to 2022. Again, an additional 45% increase has been noticed in the user engagement by 2023.
Not only has this developed the efficiency of the university’s support system, but it has also enhanced the overall user experience via the LMS system. Further, the chatbot escalates complex queries to human support.
How to choose the right higher education chatbot platform?
The success of the chatbot can determine the performance of your higher educational platform. But how do you know if a particular chatbot building platform is good enough? Simple. Consider these factors before you sign the deal and pay:
- LMS and SIS integration: Your higher education chatbots can be powerful only if they have mechanisms like LMS and SIS integration. These mechanisms help students with real-time updates and tailored answers that suit their needs.
- Natural language processing (NLP): To understand the students' intentions and deliver accurate information, look for chatbot-building platforms that offer advanced NLP. This mechanism understands the students' sentiments and contextual memory.
- User-friendly interface: Your higher education chatbot platform should have either a low-code or no-code interface. When your chatbot has a friendly user interface, you don’t need to worry about technical and non-technical workflows.
- Multilingual support: The higher education chatbot should help students in their native language. This will bring a sense of inclusivity to your university campus.
- Data security and compliance: Since your higher education chatbot deals with a variety of personal data of the students. Here, you must choose chatbot platforms that offer national regulations and comply with data privacy rules to protect all sensitive information.
How to create a higher education chatbot using Copilot.Live?
Now that you know the factors to consider while choosing the best platform, we’ve developed a readymade solution. Of all the chatbot platforms, I’ll suggest Copilot.Live for obvious reasons.
Copilot.Live is an AI-integrated chatbot building platform that helps you with advanced NLP, machine learning, and artificial intelligence mechanisms. Besides, once you develop the chatbot in Copilot.Live, you can integrate it on various platforms like websites, email, Facebook Messenger, AI voice calling, and WhatsApp. Right from workflow automation to managing your academic workspace, Copilot.Live takes care of everything that improves your online website’s efficiency.
These are the steps you can follow to create a higher education chatbot in Copilot.Live:
- Define objectives: First and foremost, set your objective right - meaning, be clear about what purpose you want the chatbot to serve. This will set the pace for the creation of the chatbot and the features to be included in it.
- Select an appropriate template: Next, sign in to Copilot.Live and access its dashboard. From here, you can create a higher education chatbot that resonates with your university's tone, personality, and style. This is where the entire customization happens.
- Design conversation flows: You certainly want your chatbot to communicate with the students effortlessly. For this, you have to feed the chatbot with data resources so that it can come up with accurate answers.
- Train the chatbot with relevant data: This is the stage that takes the most developmental time. Here, you keep on improving the chatbot's conversations and themes to ensure that it fits the market needs.
- Integrate with chosen platforms: Integrating your higher education chatbot with various platforms where your students are present makes you more visible. Copilot.Live lets you integrate your educational chatbot with the educational website, emails, Slack, AI voice call, and WhatsApp.
- Test and optimize performance: Finally, test the chatbot multiple times to avoid any debugging issues and then launch it. Keep upgrading your chatbot from time to time to meet the students' needs.
Challenges and limitations in chatbot adoption in higher education
Although these AI-based higher education chatbots are bringing in a complete transformation in the academic landscape, you might have to face certain challenges. These are the limitations that higher education chatbots come up with:
- Data privacy concerns: The higher education chatbots deal with students’ personal data, like academic records, mental health issues, identity proofs, and many more. So, it needs secure APIs and proper encryption.
- Limitations in emotional intelligence: Although most higher education chatbots are equipped with NLP, some of them fail to comprehend human sentiments and emotions. Chatbots still struggle with detecting frustration, distress and sarcasm.
- Integration with existing systems: If your university uses an out-of-date API, SIS, and LMS, the higher education chatbot will fail to respond accurately. Here, the chatbot finds it difficult to sync with the existing system.
- Ensuring student trust and adoption: Initially, students may have trust issues with the chatbot, as a lot of information regarding leakage of private data and records is surrounding these days. The only way to combat this is by clearly communicating with the students.
Future of chatbots in higher education
Yes, the higher education chatbot is thriving and is here to stay. Already, Gartner predicts that the human labor cost will be reduced by $80 billion by 2026. As this gives a digital-first experience to your students, these are some of the future trends you can expect to be implemented in higher education chatbots.
- Integration with voice assistants and VR: If you want to offer your students a hands-free experience, incorporate the chatbot with voice assistants. Here, the student gives voice commands, and the chatbot follows them. On the other hand, higher education chatbots can also be integrated with VR (Virtual Reality), which allows these chatbots to offer your students a complete virtual tour of the campus.
- Predictive analytics for student support: In recent times, the chatbot industry has been integrating predictive analytics. This means it can predict the academic performance and risks of students. To do this, the chatbot analyzes the quizzing scores, attendance patterns, and engagement logins of the students to predict results. The chatbot also sends reminders to students when they are lagging.
- Development of AI tutors: Gradually, higher education chatbots are evolving and introducing AI tutors to offer complete guidance to students. These AI tutors provide a personalized learning experience as they understand the students' preferences, strengths, and weaknesses. The chatbot-generated AI tutors create interactive quizzing sessions and engaging content.
Conclusion
Therefore, by now, you have already got a detailed understanding of how higher education chatbots can streamline tasks in your educational institution. Just like the University of Wisconsin and California State University, you must implement a higher education chatbot right away.
Considering the future trends that several industries are integrating into their chatbots now, it’s high time you create the chatbot on a reliable platform. As discussed here, you can connect with the agents of Copilot.Live. Convey your requirements and the team at Copilot.Live will take care of the rest.
