The chatbot (in Swedish) can be found on the education pages of www.lu.se. Students find it immediately via a small symbol (see image above) when they access the “Anmälan och antagning” webpage concerning applications and admissions.
The admissions unit at Student Affairs, with assistance from LDC and Corporate Communications, has developed the chatbot. A working group, which consisted of five people, has taken the five most common questions and entered automatic answers to them using key words. Chatbot responses are to help students find the right links and also give immediate answers to simple questions.
Over 5,000 emails containing questions from students are sent to the admissions unit each year. Most are received in connection with admission periods. It is hoped that the chatbot can give students better service and reduce the need for email and telephone responses. However, there are still many questions that must be handled individually.
The chatbot is the simplest form of chatbot and requires manual updating. Questions that have not been answered are saved so that the working group can add to and improve the answers on an ongoing basis. At present, the chatbot is only available in Swedish, but will be translated if this first version proves successful. The working group has conducted several user tests with students, but now it is up and running, the real test begins.