How Anglia Ruskin University is evolving its service experience with Ebbot & TOPdesk

As student expectations continue to rise and digital interactions become the norm, universities are under pressure to provide quick, accurate and accessible support at scale. For Anglia Ruskin University (ARU), with nearly 48,000 students across four campuses, this challenge has been growing for years.

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“We get around 300,000 enquiries annually, and that number is still increasing. If we tried to handle all of that manually, we would either be much slower or we’d need to employ considerably more staff.” says Rachel Wright, Product Manager at Anglia Ruskin University.

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To keep up with demand and build a support experience that truly meets students where they are, ARU turned to Ebbot.

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Starting with a clear need for better self-service

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Before Ebbot, ARU relied on a traditional chatbot within its TOPdesk self-service portal, built around static, click-through flows and pre-defined answers.

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While useful, it had clear limitations.

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“It wasn’t driven by AI, so if anything changed, I had to go in and manually recode it, and it only covered a limited number of questions." Rachel explains.

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As ARU expanded its ITSM platform, TOPdesk, across the entire university, the gaps in the existing support model became increasingly clear.

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Students needed faster, more intuitive ways to find answers – and the support teams needed relief from the thousands of simple, repetitive questions that were already documented in internal knowledge bases or on the student intranet.

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“Many of the questions we receive are things we’ve already answered in for example help articles or on our website. If we can support students in finding those answers themselves, that helps them move on more quickly – and it frees us to focus on the more complex cases.” Rachel says. 

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With TOPdesk reaffirmed as ARU’s central service platform following a re-tendering process, the university began looking for an conversational AI provider that would integrate seamlessly with TOPdesk.

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“As we saw that Ebbot is a partner to TOPdesk and offers a native integration, it became an obvious choice when we decided to upgrade our existing static chatbot to something more intelligent,” Rachel notes.

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The solution: An AI agent at the heart of self-service

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The AI agent was launched for students in the TOPdesk self-service portal in September 2024.

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From the outset, the goal wasn’t only automation or time savings – it was equally important that this new support channel felt aligned with the university’s tone and values.

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“For us, it was important that the AI agent could be customised to meet our tone of voice and feel authentic to who we are. Students should get the same positive and helpful experience as they would if they were talking to a member of staff,” Rachel explains.

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Under the hood, EbbotGPT™, Ebbot’s proprietary AI engine, fuels the AI agent with knowledge from across a wide range of trusted sources:

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• Around 4,500 pages from the student SharePoint intranet
  
• Nearly 1,000 TOPdesk knowledge items
  
• Roughly 300 library LibGuide pages
  
  

All of this ensures the AI agent can answer a wide range of queries with context and confidence.

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Results so far: Faster answers, happier students, freed-up staff

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The AI agent now takes on the majority of standard queries that previously would have reached human teams.

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“The AI agent can answer almost all common questions, and if a student want to talk to a real person instead, they can raise a case directly in TOPdesk or switch over to live chat without needing to leave the conversation”

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ARU’s support team, which normally operates from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays, has also seen significant volumes handled outside working hours.

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“32% of all incoming chats that the AI agent handles come in out of hours. Those students wouldn’t have received help at that time before we had Ebbot.”  Rachel notes.

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For a university of ARU’s size, this increased availability has been transformative.

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Using AI Insights to refine and evolve the support journey

Beyond faster support and reduced pressure on the support staff, one of the most valuable parts of the implementation of Ebbot has been the ability to analyse conversations through the AI Insights feature

“It’s been really helpful that we can now see patterns in what students are asking about most, as it helps us improve how we support them,” Rachel says.

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A recent example stands out.

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After noticing several conversations touching on anxiety and wellbeing, the team began enhancing the AI agent’s signposting for mental health support.

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“We’re not trying to make the AI agent a mental health provider, but we want it to guide students to the right help depending on their level of need. That came directly from the insights provided by Ebbot,” Rachel explains.

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Looking ahead: expanding to support staff and beyond

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The next major milestone for ARU is expanding the AI agent to also support staff queries, as more staff-facing teams join TOPdesk.

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“Our goal is to deploy the AI agent on our student and staff intranets in the future, so it can support people without them needing to come into TOPdesk at all,” Rachel shares.

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Advice to other universities: get your knowledge in order

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When asked what she tells other institutions exploring AI service tools, Rachel’s answer is immediate.

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“You can’t have a well-functioning AI agent if you don’t have your data and knowledge in order,” she says.

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And just as importantly:

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“Don’t make it too complicated. Don’t overthink it — just begin. Everyone thinks they need to take fifty steps before they can launch. You don’t. You need your data, a good AI partner that understands your needs, and then you just go for it.”

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👉 Read the full case study here

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About Ebbot

Ebbot is an Agentic AI platform designed for large-scale service automation. Built to meet the needs of regulated industries, Ebbot is trusted by more than 200 companies to deliver outstanding service experiences for both customers and employees.

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About Anglia Ruskin University 

Anglia Ruskin University (ARU) is a modern public university with roots dating back to 1858, with campuses across Cambridge, Chelmsford, Peterborough, and Writtle. Known for its inclusive approach and strong focus on employability, ARU offers a wide range of professionally oriented programmes and supports a diverse student and staff community.