IS currently promotes a culture of self-help to our users and we have invested considerable effort in improving our self-help resources. One of the barriers to self-service is the difficulty some user experience finding the correct piece of support material. Users are required to find self help materials themselves through searches and navigating the university website. This project will establish if an AI system can improve this process through understanding a user’s requirements and presenting them with the information they need. 

The project has two separate stages. It will research the current state of the AI sector, who the main players are and the differences between their services. It will also attempt to build a prototype system to increase our understanding of this technology. This will inform us about the effectiveness of these tools, the knowledge management strategy needed to support them , and the amount of effort required to build and run a chat service

At the end of the project we should have:

  • A report that details the current state of the AI market and makes recommendations of how the technology could be used in user support.
  • A strategy on how to take this type of project forward. This would recommend types of products and define the scope of what it can deliver.
  • An understanding of the workload and costs to both build and maintain such a service, compared to the benefits and cost savings we would get from it.
  • A knowledge management strategy which specifies how we should be constructing support information to allow it to be used in this type of system.

The work to investigate the sector will begin in November 2017 and will be carried out by USD staff. The aim is to deliver a report in January 2018. This will be achieved through a mixture of online research and consultation with other organisations developing similar resources, and meeting with industry providers.

The work to develop the prototype system will begin once we have a greater understanding of the market, and will be carried out by ISG and student interns.

Current project status

Report Date RAG Budget Effort Completed Effort to complete
April 2018 BLUE 0.0 days 0.0 days 0.0

Project Info

Project
AI and Chatbots for Customer Support
Code
USI013
Programme
Z. IS Innovation - User Services (USI) - Closed
Management Office
ISG PMO
Project Manager
Neil Bruce
Project Sponsor
Gosia Such
Current Stage
Close
Status
Closed
Start Date
13-Nov-2017
Planning Date
n/a
Delivery Date
n/a
Close Date
30-Apr-2018
Overall Priority
Normal

Documentation

Not available.

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