I just finished giving a panel presentation at the ISSP Conference in Miami. The panel discussion, "Enabling your Super Heroes," was moderated by Jesse Boeding, an industry veteran and doctoral student at the University of Pennsylvania. The other panelists were Chrissy Kintner, Assistant Vice Provost at the University of Missouri and Kimberly Laney, Director of Enrollment Management at UNC Charlotte. (Full disclosure: both Mizzou and UNCC are clients of Ivy.ai). 

As the semester cranks into full gear and students continue asking tough questions, take a look at some of the funniest ones as well! Here’s a look at some of our favorite student questions from the month of September!

As a college junior, I was very confused about my career path. Computer Science is a field rich with opportunities and choosing which company or job to explore seemed like an enormous feat. The only thing clear was my interest in exploring something exciting  and new. After scouring Handshake and LinkedIn, I attended multiple video conference interviews at large tech corporations where I stumbled around with terms like “iteration” and “object-oriented programming”. I was beginning to wonder if I’d chosen the wrong career path, when I discovered an internship posting from Ivy.ai, a higher education chatbot company.

As a woman working in artificial intelligence who enjoys playing video games and dislikes many traditionally “girly” things, I have experienced firsthand the difficulties of being a woman in a man’s world. Women make up a minuscule percentage of the artificial intelligence industry and of the computer science industry as a whole. Artificial intelligence software is meant to be used by everyone, but it is often inherently biased towards men because it is primarily created by men.

Human connection is a driving force in fields like higher education. Still, artificial intelligence is an incredible tool to boost efficiency, reduce costs, and captivate audiences. Whether students need to apply for financial aid, review admissions requirements, or access the university job board, artificial intelligence is becoming an integral part of the team. In fact, AI has outwitted humans in 3 key categories: data analysis, strategy, and repetitive task performance.

This Summer is flying by! As you get ready to welcome students to campus, take a look at some of the most creative questions they have asked us over the past month.

Whether you already use an Ivy chatbot, or you're just exploring the benefits of bringing Ivy to your website, you benefit the most by knowing what Ivy can do for you. Most of us know that an artificially intelligent chatbot offers real-time service to users. Chatbots resolve a high volume of inquiries on their own, and enable your staff to deliver significantly improved service. But did you know that Ivy can help with your marketing and social media communications? Ivy can help drive your productivity in a number of ways that you might not have expected.

Students want to find answers as quickly as possible. Chatbots are great for that. Students also love excellent customer service. Chatbots are great for that too, but how do you make sure your students’ experience with the chatbot is memorable?

We love working with our clients to develop new tools! We’re excited to launch the Ivy Email Center that we developed in partnership with Texas A&M University. Texas A&M identified a need for email efficiency, and we are happy to deliver! We know that your time is precious and that your students are your top priority, so we developed an email center to elevate the customer service experience for both administrators and students.

According to a survey by the National Alliance on Mental Illness, 64% of adults who dropout of college or decide not to attend college report mental health issues as the primary reason. By the spring semester of my sophomore year, I was academically dismissed from my state university, twice. At the time, I was only beginning to understand how my academic failure was deeply connected to my own struggle with depression and anxiety.  Unfortunately my story is not unique, as one in five young adults will experience a mental health condition during their college years.