Development of an AI-Powered Faculty Support Chatbot

Chatbots have great promise as a tool for providing students with feedback and assisting them in implementing metacognitive techniques during their educational journey. The potential of AI chatbots to completely transform educational systems in a variety of ways recently rocked the world. Artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots can offer prompt assistance by responding to enquiries, providing clarifications, and supplying extra resources. Chatbots can also act as virtual teaching assistants, supporting educators through various means. This research paper presents the design and implementation of SOC Buddy, an AI-powered Faculty Support Chatbot. The research aims at addressing the challenges faced by students and prospective applicants in accessing academic and administrative information by leveraging on advancements in Artificial Intelligence, particularly Generative AI. A critical review of existing educational AI Chatbots was carried out by exploring academic literature on the subject. The research was carried out using Large Language Models (LLMs) like GPT-3.5 Turbo, LangChain and various AI and software development tools. Results from SOC Buddy’s performances using various queries are presented and analysed, demonstrating its ability to provide personalized responses to a wide range of user queries. The paper demonstrates the evaluation of the Chatbot’s effectiveness in enhancing the student experience and reducing the workload on registration officers and level advisers and it concludes with recommendations for future improvements and potential expansions of the Chatbot’s capabilities.