case study

Siglo 21 University improves their digital student experience with Aivo's Artificial Intelligence

Industry
Channels

Web

Products

200K

automated queries

94%

effectivity

41 secs.

average support time

200K

automated queries

94%

effectivity

41 secs.

average support time

The education industry isn't exempt from the huge benefits of using automation technologies. This is true for Siglo 21 University, whose artificial intelligence bot went from providing administrative support to providing basic academic information to all students.

Innovation as an educational initiative

Since its founding in 1995, innovation has been a mainstay for Siglo 21 University. From the beginning they were committed to new technologies, and this has allowed them to become leaders in the region. Today they offer a full range of undergraduate and graduate degree programs, as well as internationally-certified programs.

With over 65,000 students, a presence in all 23 provinces in Argentina, and more than 350 University Learning Centers, the institution receives hundreds of student applications a day.

Made up mostly of millennials and Generation Z, the University’s community is always online and connected. Newer generations already demand personalized, asynchronous, and automated study tools.

A recent Statista study shows that most university students prefer to use digital learning tech as academic tools. 79% believe this tech helps professors be more efficient during classes and 81% agreed that they also help improve grades.

This means that the priority for student support now involves providing tools that adapt to their lifestyles, jobs, and schedules.

A strategy for a new generation

Siglo 21 decided to use artificial intelligence solutions to respond to the new needs of its students. Today students expect things immediately and whenever they want on multiple channels, both with administrative issues and the actual learning process.

Siglo 21's goals for offering new support quality were clear. On one hand, they wanted to be available to their students 24/7, including outside support hours.

On the other hand, they wanted the tool to have the most amount of personalization for each student.

“We don't think being big goes against being able to personalize things. We're committed to making each student feel unique, just like they decided we were unique enough for their education. Technology allows for exactly that”. Leon Molina | Former General Director of Marketing and Communication.

Another goal was that the tool, originally designed to provide support, could later be adapted for academic purposes.

Finally, their last goal was to be a leader in the Argentinian education sector by offering automatic digital support to its students.

To do this, Siglo 21 implemented Aivo’s conversational chatbot powered by artificial intelligence. The chatbot allows for self-service support, omnichannel experiences, and personalized answers.

“We decided to incorporate artificial intelligence because the University educates through technology. This means adding this tool improves the student experience,” explained Paula Alberione, Head of Customer Service.

A student's best friend

To set up the bot, Siglo 21 created a team that performed daily evaluations on student requests and their satisfaction in terms of the answers. They're continuously improving the bot’s content, voice, and tone based on that constant analysis.

The virtual assistant also learns on its own as it interacts with the user. This developmental learning lets students receive immediate answers without help from a live person.

Currently, the bot provides information on subject areas and their courses, exams, scholarships, registration, payment processing, help for accessing and using platforms, and contact information.

The education of the future is already here

Implementing automated technologies was a huge benefit to the student community. For one, they can self-manage their problems online and on the spot. The conversational bot also helps the University meet its support goals through omnichannel services.

AgentBot allowed us to overcome a huge challenge: providing personalized support to so many students. It’s reliable. It gives the right answer to the right person 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.” Leon Molina | Former General Director of Marketing and Communication.

As a result, they were able to automate more than 170 thousand conversations, with an average time of 46 seconds. They also have a 96% retention rate through the chatbot.

The next challenge for Siglo 21 with Artificial Intelligence

Siglo 21 is currently working together with the Aivo team on a new integration for managing incoming students.

Through the chatbot, prospective students can request information about a particular program and provide their personal info by filling out a form. The bot sends this information to the institution’s CRM, generating a new lead to be contacted in order to provide them with the necessary information.

This way, those interested can fill out the form from the same chatbot while they browse the website, and that information is quickly processed by Aivo’s platform.