The Division of Student Affairs recently launched Chat with Ace, an AI messaging tool that focuses on four areas of student life: engagement, academics, wellness and finances.

Chat with Ace resulted from a partnership between Student Affairs and EdSights, a company that specializes in conversational AI. The Division of Student Affairs received input from a committee of ULM staff members and faculty to build a knowledge base.

According to Micene Fontaine, the student affairs retention, recruiting and marketing officer, the knowledge base consists of 300 of the most frequently asked questions.

Chat with Ace only pulls answers from the committee’s list of questions. If the chatbot does not know the answer, the committee will contact the student about on-campus resources.

Micene Fontaine discussed how Chat with Ace notices students struggling in at least one of the four areas.

“Chat with Ace flags students whose answers start to show signs of struggle in one of the four drivers so that we can proactively reach out,” Fontaine said. “Students may not feel like they belong or may experience homesickness and depression. The student will get flagged for engagement, and then we can reach out and try to figure out what’s going on to help the student feel more engaged on campus.”

Fontaine expressed his hope that Chat with Ace will erase stigmas surrounding on-campus resources.

“There are a lot of stigmas around students receiving the support that they need. The shame is those services are here for the students to take advantage of,” Fontaine said.

Chat with Ace has received 9,053 text messages since its launch on Aug 25. 40% of all students on campus have interacted with the chatbot.

Junior toxicology major Brooke Barrett discussed how Ace AI benefits freshman students.

“When I was a freshman, I always had trouble finding offices, such as financial aid or HR,” Barrett said. “Ace AI is a great tool for freshman students learning their way around campus. All you have to do is shoot Ace a text!”