Gonzaga University Employs Virtual Assistant for Tech Support

In an effort to improve the IT support experience for students and instructor, Gonzaga University has rolled out virtual assistant technology from noHold that uses artificial intelligence to communicate with users through a chat interface.

Now, users can get 24/7 support via mobile phone, the school website, social media sites, and even automated personal assistants like Amazon Alexa. The noHold virtual assistant serves as users' first point of contact, designed to provide information without the need for searching.

According to student feedback from the first month of the deployment, 71 percent of users found the virtual assistant helpful — twice as effective as the average virtual assistant at launch, according to a news announcement. To encourage adoption, the university put up QR codes around campus to make virtual assistant easy to access. The system also analyzes users' interactions with the virtual assistant, in order to improve processes and expand its knowledgebase.

"The noHold professionals worked relentlessly to help us create and deploy a truly exceptional example of what a virtual assistant can be," commented Lyle Spencer, data architect at Gonzaga University, in a statement. "Since go-live, noHold has dedicated a project manager and developer that meets with us to weekly continue supporting and improving our virtual assistant."

"It has been inspiring to see the passion and care the Gonzaga staff feels for its students," said Diego Ventura, CEO and founder of noHold. "They worked very hard to make sure the Virtual Assistant launched without a hitch and was adopted by the whole school."

About the Author

Rhea Kelly is editor in chief for Campus Technology, THE Journal, and Spaces4Learning. She can be reached at [email protected].

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