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Supporting 48,000 students with fast, always-available help
Industry
Higher Education
Markets
UK
Use cases
Student support
Scaling student support without scaling headcount
Anglia Ruskin University (ARU) manages hundreds of thousands of student enquiries each year. While most questions were already answered in existing knowledge sources, students struggled to find the information themselves. The previous guide-based chatbot was static, limited, and required frequent manual updates, making it difficult to scale support efficiently.
Provide students with fast, consistent, self-service support that reduces manual workload and improves access to information.
“Many student questions were already answered in our knowledge base or website, but students struggled to find the information when they needed it.”
An AI agent integrated into TOPdesk
ARU deployed an AI agent within its TOPdesk self-service portal in september 2024.
The AI agent is powered by generative AI and trained on thousands of webpages and knowledge items from across the university, enabling it to answer common questions, guide students to relevant information, and route more complex enquiries to the right team – while maintaining ARU’s friendly, supportive tone of voice.
“The AI agent helps students get answers straight away and gives the support staff more time to focus on the complicated questions that really require a human.”
Scalable support for thousands of students
High-volume automated resolution
The AI agent handled more than 4,000 student queries in September alone, helping ARU manage peak periods without increasing staffing levels.
Lower support workload
By resolving a large share of repeat questions, the AI agent allows staff to focus on complex and sensitive cases, improving response times and service quality.
Data-driven service improvements
The AI Insights feature revealed themes such as student anxiety and mental-health-related queries, helping ARU improve signposting and support resources across channels.
Greater availability across hours
With support available outside office hours, students increasingly turn to the AI agent as their primary entry point for help.
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