Implementing at CAI chatbot at the Saint Mary's Help Desk
Speakerd: Melanie More-Duckworth and Aditya Chopra
This presentation centers on the process undertaken by Enterprise Information Technologies (EIT) to search for, select, and integrate a conversational AI chatbot.
Feedback from our student technology survey clearly indicated that students were seeking more convenient and efficient ways to interact with university support services.
Recognizing this need, EIT identified an opportunity to shape the direction of conversational AI (CAI) adoption within the university. Given that Team Dynamix was already in place as the university’s IT Service Management (ITSM) platform, integrating a CAI capability with this system offered a straightforward path to modernize and streamline IT support services.
We will include an overview of the factors that influenced the selection and vetting of the Team Dynamix CAI solution. Attendees will gain insight into the evaluation process, key decision points, and the rationale for adopting this technology within a higher education context.
We will share our journey designing and building conversation intents and flows, outlining how we leveraged existing knowledge base content to enhance user interactions and support. The session will highlight both the challenges encountered and the lessons learned throughout the development and deployment phases.
Finally, we will discuss future plans and the roadmap for expanding the chatbot’s role beyond the EIT Help Desk, including strategies for broader institutional adoption and continued innovation in service delivery.
Learning Objectives: By the end of this presentation, participants will be able to describe the process of selecting and integrating a conversational AI chatbot within a university IT environment, identify the key factors and decision points involved in technology adoption, understand the challenges and lessons learned during development and deployment, and outline strategies for expanding chatbot capabilities to support broader institutional service delivery.
Speaker Bio:
Melanie More-Duckworth is the Assistant director client technology services at Saint Mary's University. She has over 25 years' experience working in client services in higher education.
Aditya Chopra is an End User Support Technologist with the EIT Help Desk at Saint Mary's University. He was the key technical lead on SMU's chatbot implementation.