Why Do Universities Need a Chatbot?

If you were around in the early days of the internet, you might remember the rudimentary chatbots that some websites featured, interactions were sloppy and mechanical. However, our obsession to produce human-like artificial intelligence has allowed us to push technology forward with many practical applications. 

One of these major breakthroughs has been in the education industry. Today we're seeing universities wrangle the usage of artificial intelligence implementing chatbots with machine learning, for uses you might not expect. 

What exactly are these education chatbots, and why do universities need them to help their admissions staff? There's a whole host of benefits of a chatbot, and we're going to explain why they are so necessary.

The Future of Machine Learning Is Here

Although the education industry might be new to the powers that artificial intelligence can bring, machine learning has been evolving for quite some time. Other industries have long been taking advantage of its potential, while the education industry has only just begun to catch up. 

Legacy communication platforms such as emails have dominated colleges and universities globally for quite some time. Althougn that's not a bad thing per se, it constrains education services to outdated models in an age of instant digital interactions.

Let's take the business world as an example. Artificial intelligence has made processing and interpreting large quantities of data a breeze, and although that same demand doesn't exist in every industry, it sure has other uses. 

Any institution dealing with a great deal of interactions can optimize its human resources by implementing artificial intelligence.

How Reliable Is Machine Learning?

One concern for newcomers might be the reliability of systems powered by artificial intelligence and machine learning.

However, most of the time these concerns are more related to an aversion to change rather than the inefficiencies of technology itself. This is evidenced by how many different industries are using artificial intelligence. 

The results across the board have been beneficial, and there are many stories of companies saving hundreds of thousands of dollars on industries that rely on interactive services. All of this because they’re able to provide more attention to their customers while reducing human workload.

No matter what metric you measure it by, AI and machine learning have demonstrated the ability to provide enormous improvements to any business model.

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Is AI Already Being Used in Colleges and Universities?

Just how cutting edge is this technology? Well, it's definitely at the forefront of AI development, but it's already finding revolutionary uses in the education sector. Some universities have started using chatbots to enhance their  student recruitment capabilities. 

Chatbots are helping to make the application process for students more effective. Students commonly have endless questions on their mind about universities or colleges. However, many times they’re unable to find a contact to have those questions answered or even be reluctant to ask outside of digital media. 

A chatbot makes that process faster and easier. It provides the student with instant answers and drastically increases their likelihood of continuing with the application process. 

For the university, the benefit is freeing up time for the staff to dedicate themselves to other jobs. They can instead turn to answering more advanced questions or handling specific applications. 

How To implement an Education Chatbot

Education institutions often think that deploying a chatbot and the platform that supports it is a monumental task. Another thought might be that it requires an enormous IT infrastructure, with specialized staff to maintain it. 

Nothing could be further from the truth. It might even surprise them to learn that they can deploy this complex and advanced technology with relative ease.

Is the Chatbot a Good Experience for Users?

Today, good AI-powered chatbots provide experiences that are almost no different from how you interact with an authentic person. They emulate human behavior, all the way down to using things like emojis! 

This is what is described as conversational AI. It's a concept built upon more than just the machine learning that we discussed. 

A human can process language to understand the context and utilize natural language. AI now performs these processes too. It means that responses will always sound like they are coming from another person, and the AI can integrate what it learns in its interactions. 

Take Advantage of the Benefits

As this digital revolution moves forward, there's no reason to be left behind. AI has reached a stage where it is not only approachable but vital for every industry to implement it.

The education chatbot will change how you get new students and add a layer of resources and data collection relieving time constraints and freeing up staff resources. Artificial intelligence in education isn't a passing trend, it's here to stay.

If you´re ready to start or are wondering how machine learning and artificial intelligence can help your university, take a look at these use cases.