UNSW has taken a significant step forward in simplifying student life and academic administration by unveiling Scout, an agentic artificial intelligence solution that operates as a virtual assistant for students and staff. As a project designed by the Educational Technology Support team and powered by Microsoft Azure OpenAI, Scout offers fast, intuitive access to critical university information, addressing a longstanding challenge within higher education: the overwhelming volume and complexity of navigating academic resources.
University environments are inherently complex. With tens of thousands of students, a vast array of programs, and countless administrative and academic policies, simple tasks—such as finding the deadline for an assignment or locating mental health support—can become a significant source of stress. For years, these issues have placed substantial pressure on both the student body and teaching staff, with repetitive queries consuming valuable time and often leading to frustration on both ends.
UNSW, a renowned institution serving over 70,000 students, recognized this challenge and committed to leveraging cutting-edge technology to streamline information access, reduce administrative burdens, and improve overall wellbeing. The Educational Technology Support team, led by Pradhiban Duraisamy, has long focused on crafting solutions that enhance digital accessibility and support the university’s mission of transformative education.
Scout dramatically simplifies this experience. Students no longer need to know which administrative office handles a particular inquiry or decipher acronyms and abbreviations; they can simply ask Scout. Typical queries include:
Future iterations of Scout are likely to include:
UNSW’s Scout demonstrates that well-designed, agentic AI can fundamentally reshape how students experience university life. By lowering barriers, empowering staff, and continuously adapting to user needs, Scout points toward a future where information is easy to access, support is always available, and academic engagement soars to new heights. As the pilot evolves and expands, Scout is not only improving individual outcomes but also redefining what’s possible in the digital campus of tomorrow.
Source: Microsoft UNSW’s Scout: Simplifying student life with agentic AI technology - Source Asia
Background: The Challenge of Navigating University Life
University environments are inherently complex. With tens of thousands of students, a vast array of programs, and countless administrative and academic policies, simple tasks—such as finding the deadline for an assignment or locating mental health support—can become a significant source of stress. For years, these issues have placed substantial pressure on both the student body and teaching staff, with repetitive queries consuming valuable time and often leading to frustration on both ends.UNSW, a renowned institution serving over 70,000 students, recognized this challenge and committed to leveraging cutting-edge technology to streamline information access, reduce administrative burdens, and improve overall wellbeing. The Educational Technology Support team, led by Pradhiban Duraisamy, has long focused on crafting solutions that enhance digital accessibility and support the university’s mission of transformative education.
Introducing Scout: UNSW’s Agentic AI Game Changer
Scout is the product of years of iterative development, born from the university’s Educational Technology Roadmap 2024-2028. It was designed as a hyper-accessible, intelligent agent capable of answering routine student and staff queries—a “game changer” for UNSW.Key Features of Scout
- Built with Microsoft Azure OpenAI: Integrating Microsoft Copilot Studio and Microsoft Power Platform, Scout leverages the latest GPT capabilities to source and deliver information.
- Accessible via Moodle: Embedded into UNSW’s primary learning management system, Scout meets students where they are, minimizing friction and maximizing campus-wide adoption.
- Hierarchical Knowledge Retrieval: Scout organizes and draws from multiple knowledge repositories, from niche course-specific guidelines to general university websites, ensuring the relevance and accuracy of its answers.
- 24/7 Availability: With the majority of queries (58%) occurring outside business hours, Scout effectively bridges service gaps and ensures support is always available.
- User-Friendly Design: Featuring a friendly, hoodie-clad persona, Scout’s approachable interface lowers barriers, especially for new and international students.
How Scout Democratizes Information Access
Information overload is a well-documented barrier in academic success. While all necessary details typically exist within various online university resources, the sheer number of web pages, unfamiliar organizational structures, and campus-specific jargon can make self-service nearly impossible—particularly for international students or first-year cohorts.Scout dramatically simplifies this experience. Students no longer need to know which administrative office handles a particular inquiry or decipher acronyms and abbreviations; they can simply ask Scout. Typical queries include:
- “When are assessments for this course?”
- “Where can I find my enrolment status?”
- “Does the university offer support services for students struggling with coursework?”
Hierarchical Information Structure
Scout’s information retrieval is designed like a pyramid:- Course-Specific Information: The most detailed answers, including topics like weekly attendance, assignment specifics, and unique class guidelines.
- Public Course Outlines: Broader content about learning outcomes, assessment guides, and lecture materials.
- University Websites: General information on university policies, student societies, and support services.
- GPT-Driven Answers: If all other sources are exhausted, Scout leverages generative AI to formulate accurate responses.
Transforming Staff and Student Interactions
The launch of Scout has significantly shifted academic interactions at UNSW. With the AI agent handling routine and repetitive queries, students are approaching their lecturers with deeper, more sophisticated questions that reflect genuine engagement with course content and research topics.Benefits for Academic Staff
- Reduction of Low-Level Administrative Work: Freed from addressing minor logistical queries, faculty can focus on delivering high-impact teaching and mentoring.
- Improved Quality of Student Engagement: Students are less inclined to ask when assignments are due and more likely to seek clarification on course concepts or research interests.
- More Time for Academic Innovation: With less time spent on emails and basic inquiries, lecturers and administrative staff can dedicate more energy to curriculum development and student support.
Measuring Impact: Usage and Accuracy
Scout’s pilot program rapidly expanded from an initial cohort of 1,000 to 7,500 students. Analysis of usage patterns has revealed several important trends:- High Demand Outside Office Hours: More than half of inquiries are made at night or on weekends, demonstrating significant demand for always-on support.
- Positive Accuracy and Reliability: No pilot participants reported receiving incorrect information, a testament to the robust validation processes and source-linking built into Scout’s responses.
- Rising Expectations and Wish Lists: Students are already proposing new features, such as tailored course recommendations based on their academic trajectories and career aspirations.
Prioritizing Inclusivity and Student Wellbeing
One of the most promising aspects of Scout is its potential to promote equity and support mental health across the student body. The AI agent’s empathetic approach, combined with system integration, allows it to do more than just answer questions.Addressing Mental Health and Accessibility
- Empathetic Responses: Scout is designed to recognize and acknowledge student concerns before offering support options, modeling compassionate digital communication.
- Direct Connections to Support: The system can book appointments or refer students to relevant campus services for issues ranging from learning adjustments to psychological counseling.
- Peak Period Awareness: During exam periods or campus stress spikes, Scout can proactively point students towards wellbeing resources based on conversational cues.
The Technology Behind Scout: Power Platform and Copilot Studio
The rapid development and ongoing evolution of Scout are enabled by robust, scalable Microsoft technologies.Technical Foundations
- Microsoft Power Platform: The low-code environment allows specialist teams within UNSW to rapidly prototype, deploy, and update features—without depending on centralized IT.
- Copilot Studio and Azure OpenAI: These AI-driven tools empower Scout to interpret complex natural language questions and cross-reference multiple knowledge sources for high-accuracy responses.
- Secure, Institutional Data Integration: By leveraging established authentication and data security protocols, Scout safeguards sensitive data while maintaining ease of access.
Agentic AI: Redefining Support in Higher Education
UNSW’s Scout is not just a chatbot—it exemplifies a broader shift towards agentic AI in education, where intelligent systems act independently to deliver context-aware, proactive support.Advantages of Agentic AI
- Personalized Engagement: Systems like Scout can eventually recall past conversations, making each interaction smarter and more individualized.
- Proactive Problem-Solving: By monitoring usage patterns and sentiment, agentic AI can anticipate needs—such as automating reminders for deadlines or escalating wellbeing concerns.
- Organization-Wide Scalability: Flexible, modular design enables seamless adoption across faculties, departments, and campuses.
Critical Analysis: Opportunities and Risks
While Scout’s initial rollout is a case study in digital transformation done right, several caveats and ongoing considerations are worth noting.Strengths
- High User Satisfaction: Early data suggest a strong positive reception linked to reliability, convenience, and user-friendly design.
- Operational Efficiency: The solution is lowering administrative workloads for faculty and administrative staff, freeing them for more impactful activities.
- Inclusivity: Particularly valuable for international students and those unfamiliar with university bureaucracy, Scout lowers accessibility barriers.
- Adaptability and Local Control: An in-house development framework means features can be quickly adapted in response to real-time feedback.
Risks and Uncertainties
- Model Hallucination: While robust safeguards are in place, any generative AI carries the risk of producing “hallucinated” or inaccurate responses. Continuous monitoring and validation are essential.
- Scalability Challenges: Rapid expansion can uncover edge cases or out-of-date knowledge repositories that must be quickly addressed.
- Privacy Concerns: The more deeply Scout integrates with academic and health services, the more crucial secure data handling and user consent become.
- Dependence on Vendor Platforms: Heavy reliance on Microsoft’s ecosystem, while enabling rapid development, may limit future flexibility or introduce licensing risks.
Lessons for Other Institutions
UNSW’s experience with Scout provides actionable insights for universities worldwide exploring agentic AI solutions.Top Takeaways
- Keep Development Local: Having in-house expertise accelerates the feedback loop and allows for close alignment with campus-specific needs.
- Iterate Based on Genuine Feedback: Piloting the solution in real academic cycles enables rapid tuning of both features and support content.
- Empower Subject-Matter Experts: By allowing academic and administrative teams to manage their own information domains, institutions speed up updates and improve relevance.
- Focus on Real User Pain Points: Feature sets must be grounded in the actual, recurring problems faced by students and staff—not hypothetical use cases.
The Road Ahead: The Future of Agentic AI at UNSW and Beyond
Scout’s journey is just beginning. Early successes have sparked interest across faculties and administrative units at UNSW, with many experts eager to deploy their own specialized agents. The Power Platform’s modularity means information silos can be minimized, and collaboration improved, as knowledge bases and functions are distributed among those closest to the content.Future iterations of Scout are likely to include:
- Personalized Course and Career Recommendations: Leveraging students’ history and intentions to provide more tailored academic support.
- Expanded Wellbeing Support: Deeper integrations with campus mental health and accessibility services.
- Continuous Learning: Ongoing refinement of Scout’s responses based on changing university structures and student needs.
- Collaborative Agent Ecosystems: Multiple intelligent agents, communicating and sharing knowledge, to provide holistic campus support.
UNSW’s Scout demonstrates that well-designed, agentic AI can fundamentally reshape how students experience university life. By lowering barriers, empowering staff, and continuously adapting to user needs, Scout points toward a future where information is easy to access, support is always available, and academic engagement soars to new heights. As the pilot evolves and expands, Scout is not only improving individual outcomes but also redefining what’s possible in the digital campus of tomorrow.
Source: Microsoft UNSW’s Scout: Simplifying student life with agentic AI technology - Source Asia
