During the lockdown in 2020, the college faced a issue related to online student recruitment support. This is when I decided to develop an AI (NLP) based chatbot for the college to tackle the problem faced. The bot provided prospective students with all necessary information related to the college and it's programmes. This was normally sent via email by the support operators. The chatbot was enabled 24/7 and in few months it managed to close 600+ tickets, basically programme related queries from 36 countries. The International Recruitment team was able to focus on more important tasks during this time.
Aboo is an AI based chatbot that processes natural language. User can get valuable information for the queries they share with Aboo. Most of the chatbots used in Higher Education in Oman rely on operator based live chats which aren't a 24/7 model. Others use chatbots that aren't NLP based but steps based - where visitors click the available options and follow a fixed conversation path. Many of the local universities use Whatsapp based chats, which aren't chatbots but operators disguised as chatbots. The problem with all these solutions is reliability and sustainability. Aboo is reliable because it works 24/7 and is sustainable because whenever there are changes, it doesn't affect other systems or processes. Aboo can be integrated into multiple communication channels without any major changes to the system.
There are several chatbots used by MNC's based on IBM Watson and Amazon Lex, these chatbots are expensive and require a lot of engineering. Aboo is a chatbot that can be freely designed using Google Dialogflow and then integrated into multiple communication channels. In my case, we are on the free Dialogflow subscription because of the visitor count on the website but upgrading to a higher bandwidth option is just a click away and very cost effective. Google Dialogflow is simple and easy to design and can be undertaken by anyone with a basic knowledge in programming and system design. We use Zoho for leads tracking, therefore it was easier to set up the chatbot using ZoHo where a direct integration was avalible to Dialogflow. The platform is unique and unrivalled when taking the financial investment into consideration.
This project was published in the newspapers locally and presented (project presentation) at 2 international virtual conferences this year. It was showcased at the QS Maple International Virtual Conference and Innovation Arabia 14 (Dubai). As the Head of eLearning and Innovation at Majan University College, it was my privilege to present a project of mine at these 2 conferences.