AI receptionists for a university Co-op department
The Co-op department of one of the largest universities receives a constant stream of questions from students and employers about placements, requirements and deadlines.
- IndustryHigher education
- SolutionAI chat & voice receptionists
- Channels & systemsPhone and chat, Arabic & English
- GoalAnswer every student and employer, at any hour
The challenge
The Co-op department of one of the largest universities answers a constant stream of questions from students and employers: eligibility, available placements, required documents, deadlines and employer registration. Most are routine, but each one takes a coordinator’s time, by phone or by message.
What made this harder: the questions don’t arrive evenly. They come at all hours, in Arabic and English, and they rise sharply around key dates in the academic calendar, exactly when coordinators are busiest.
Our approach
We started with the department’s own material: its rules, guides, deadlines and the questions students and employers ask most. That became the knowledge the receptionists answer from.
We then built AI receptionists for both phone and chat. They answer in Arabic or English, understand what the caller needs, share the right form or link or record the request, and hand anything that needs a person to the right coordinator with a summary of the conversation.
Our AI engine layer
This is how we set up AI: it does the routine work, and people stay in control of the decisions that matter.
Behind the phone and chat receptionists sits our AI engine layer, set up around the department’s own rules, guides and deadlines, and around the cases coordinators want to handle themselves.
Handles the routine
- Answering eligibility, placement, document and deadline questions, by phone or chat
- Sending the right form, guide or link
- Recording requests and employer registrations
- Summarising every conversation for the team
Waits for approval
- Exceptions to the rules, such as late submissions or eligibility appeals
- Approving placements and employer registrations
- Complaints and sensitive cases
- Any question the department’s material doesn’t cover
When a case needs a coordinator, the engine passes it on with a summary and tells the student or employer what happens next. We review unanswered questions and handovers with the department and add to the knowledge the engine answers from, so it keeps improving on the questions that matter most.
Outcomes & impact
Students and employers now get an answer straight away, at any hour, by phone or chat.
What it makes possible: routine questions handled without waiting, fewer repeated calls and messages for the team, and coordinators who receive only the cases that need them, already summarised.
The department keeps the personal support it is known for, and spends it where it matters most.
Why this matters
Student services teams face the same pressure every term: the same questions, asked by thousands of people, at the moments the team has least time.
Our job was to answer those questions well, in both languages and on the channels people already use, without replacing the coordinators students rely on.
Institutions that serve people well aren’t the ones with the longest opening hours. They’re the ones that are there when the question is asked.
Let’s make your business
work better, together.
Request a free audit ↗More use cases
Use case · Connected business systemsAn ERP system for a construction companyAn ERP that runs a construction company from one system.
Use case · Intelligent websites & dashboardsAn intelligent store and dashboard for a luxury Emirati abaya brandFrom Instagram messages to an AI-run store and one dashboard for orders, billing and stock.