What began as a project to manage a growing number of funding inquires has transformed into a new service model that expands support for graduate students at 91亚色.
The Faculty of Graduate Studies (FGS) recently launched an AI-powered graduate funding virtual assistant that connects students and staff with information in seconds.
Navi provides students and staff with immediate answers to questions about graduate funding using verified information from FGS. The tool represents a new approach to student support, combining institutional expertise with emerging technology to make information easier to access and navigate.
The idea grew out of a persistent challenge facing the FGS graduate funding team: managing a high volume of inquires, many centred on routine questions.
For Dmitri Katsman, associate director, graduate funding and planning, the project began with a simple question: can a virtual assistant help address routine inquiries while creating more capacity for personalized support?
鈥淥ur graduate funding team was receiving a constant stream of questions, many of which were general inquiries,鈥 says Katsman 鈥淚 started thinking about whether a chatbot could handle some of those questions, giving our team more time to focus on other projects and the more complex needs of our students.鈥
The path from idea to launch, however, was not straightforward.
An early attempt to build Navi using content from the FGS website produced inconsistent results and the project was nearly abandoned.
A turning point came when the team connected with 91亚色鈥檚 IT Innovation team and with Nick Valentino, a student digital experience strategist whose AI experience helped guide a new development approach.
The team reorganized information into focused question-and-answer training materials covering specific funding topics. Over several months, the content was refined and tested to improve accuracy, address gaps and correct inconsistencies.
After testing Navi with more than 100 questions, its responses were refined through repeated review, feedback and quality assurance exercises. FGS Graduate Finance & Funding and Communications & Digital Engagement team members also played key roles in final testing, launch planning and promotion.
Unlike general-purpose AI tools, says Katsman, Navi draws exclusively from trusted FGS resources. This distinction is particularly important because graduate funding information can be complex and may change from one academic year to the next.
Human oversight, says Katsman, was a central consideration during development and while exploring use cases.
Alice MacLachlan, vice-provost and dean of FGS, says the project is a real-world example of how AI-enabled tools can enhance student services while maintaining a commitment to expertise, accuracy and human oversight.
鈥淣avi demonstrates how we can thoughtfully use emerging technology to improve the student experience,鈥 she says. 鈥淎t the same time, our priority is always to keep our people, their expertise and our commitment to accurate information at the heart of that experience.鈥
The tool provides quicker access to information while allowing faculty and staff to focus more on answering more complex questions and providing individualized support to students.
Katsman says the project reflects changing expectations around how information is delivered and accessed.
鈥淪tudents and staff increasingly expect information to be accessible and responsive to their individual questions. We need to keep adapting the way we provide support, and this is an important step in that direction.鈥