Lightning Talk

From AI Chatbot to Live Service: Building an End-to-End Student IT Support Journey

This lightning talk presents the design of an end-to-end AI-enabled student IT support journey at University College Cork. Moving beyond a conventional chatbot, the project explores how AI can be embedded into real service delivery through a student-facing self-service interface, RAG-based knowledge retrieval, guided troubleshooting, structured information collection and ESM ticket integration.

The talk will share the key design decisions behind the AI agent: how student queries are classified, how minimal follow-up questions are used to build context, how unresolved issues are converted into actionable ESM tickets, and how interaction data can support evaluation and continuous improvement. It offers a practical example of how AI can be designed around real service needs and operational workflows to deliver more consistent, efficient and actionable IT support.