Galvia is working with one of Ireland’s leading universities, the University of Galway (Formerly NUI Galway), to enhance its student engagement services using an innovative AI-powered platform.
Josephine Walsh, Head of Student Engagement Projects, shares the University’s experience of working with Galvia and how AI is supercharging their student’s experience.
Introducing Cara
Walsh explains that the first step of their collaboration with Galvia was the creation of a conversational AI chatbot for web and mobile, named Cara (meaning friend, in Irish), and is available 24/7/365 days of a year. Learn the Four Steps to Transforming Student Engagement with AI.
Cara’s principal purpose was to help alleviate the high number of frequently asked questions efficiently and effectively as well as serve as a one-stop shop for information.
However, because of its reliability and its data analytics, Walsh quickly realised that Cara was becoming a “finger on the pulse” of students’ most immediate needs in real-time.
“In the time that Cara has been running so far” explains Walsh, “Cara has taken a huge amount of queries, equivalent to a physical space with three people (working) in there. That gives you an idea of the time our team has saved in responding to repetitive questions”.
Cara is still working when the physical offices are closed. Walsh explains that the analytics presented to them by Galvia on usage trends allows them to see Cara is responding to queries around the clock.
“Students are asking questions at six am, at seven am, at two o’clock in the morning, and at six am – they wouldn’t get too many staff working at that time!”
So Cara begins to fill the role of a virtual assistant more than just a chatbot. Now student services have more time to focus on what matters most – serving and encouraging students through every step of their university experience.