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Good practice Imported

ISEG Lisbon's Generative-AI Chatbot for Admissions and Student Services

Portugal · Lisbon · See the Portugal profile · See the Lisbon profile

Evidence: Descriptive / self-reported Top 95% 20/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

ISEG (Universidade de Lisboa) launched what it calls Portugal's first generative-AI higher-education chatbot, built with Noesis on Azure OpenAI to answer admissions and Erasmus questions 24/7; the vendor reports 60% fewer repetitive staff enquiries, not independently verified.

up to 60 %
Reduction in repetitive enquiries reaching staff (vendor-reported, not independently audited) (since launch, June 2025)
ISEG Lisbon's Generative-AI Chatbot for Admissions and Student Services

Details

Maturity
Pilot
Promoter
ISEG – Instituto Superior de Economia e Gestão (Universidade de Lisboa), with Noesis / Microsoft Azure OpenAI
Period
Launched 27 June 2025 – ongoing
Region (NUTS)
PT17
Keywords
admissions chatbot, generative AI, student services, higher education, Azure OpenAI

Context

On 27 June 2025, ISEG – Instituto Superior de Economia e Gestão, part of Universidade de Lisboa, launched a generative-AI chatbot built over six months with Portuguese firm Noesis on Microsoft's Azure OpenAI platform, described by the university as Portugal's first such deployment by a higher-education institution.

Activities

The chatbot answers prospective and current students' questions about courses, admissions, tuition fees, Erasmus mobility and scholarships in natural language, 24 hours a day, drawing on a curated, human-validated knowledge base rather than learning autonomously from user interactions, "to ensure total control over response consistency and reliability."

Results

Noesis's own case study reports up to a 60% reduction in repetitive enquiries reaching staff, alongside 24-hour multilingual support.

Conclusions

The 60% figure comes from the technology vendor, not an independent audit, and no published data yet covers query volume, user satisfaction or effects on admissions or enrolment outcomes, as the deployment is barely a year old. Independent Portuguese business press corroborates the launch and design but not the impact figures.

Implementation
Indicative cost
Low (< €50k) — Built over six months in partnership with Portuguese firm Noesis on Microsoft's Azure OpenAI platform; no budget figures disclosed.
Time to results
Short (< 1 year) — Launched 27 June 2025; ongoing, with less than a year of operation as of the source.
Staffing & skills
ISEG – Instituto Superior de Economia e Gestão / Universidade de Lisboa (deploying institution), Noesis (vendor/technical partner), Microsoft Azure OpenAI (platform provider)

Conditions for success

  • Curated, human-validated knowledge base rather than autonomous learning, to ensure control over response consistency and reliability
  • Six-month build partnership between ISEG and Noesis on Azure OpenAI

Common failure modes

  • The 60% reduction figure comes from the vendor, not an independent audit
  • No published data yet on query volume, user satisfaction, or effects on admissions or enrolment outcomes

Commonly funded by

Own resources / municipal budget

Indicative funding routes for practices of this type — always check each programme's current calls and eligibility rules.

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Data sources

Where this practice's information was retrieved from, and when.

Attachments

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