UCLA’s Digital & Technology Solutions (DTS) and Enrollment Management teams have reimagined student support on August 28, 2025 by launching BruinChat, an AI-powered assistant (powered by Gecko) that delivers 24/7, personalized financial aid guidance. This initiative is part of UCLA’s broader effort to transform the student experience through human-centered technology.
Meeting Student Needs with Scalable Support
Each year, thousands of students seek help navigating financial aid and undergraduate admissions. During peak periods, long wait times and finite real-time support created unnecessary stress and delayed access to critical information.
Recognizing these challenges, DTS Student Products and Enrollment Management teams set out to build a more scalable support model that would reduce staff workload while improving access and satisfaction for students.
Piloting A Smarter Way to Serve Students
UCLA’s journey toward AI-driven support began with a manually updated knowledge base (KB) chatbot. While this early tool provided basic assistance, it required ongoing maintenance and lacked the scalability needed to meet evolving student demands.
To address this challenge, the DTS Student Products and Enrollment Management teams piloted an advanced AI assistant that used generative AI to deliver more relevant, timely answers. To drive experimentation, the pilot product was promoted through student orientation and UCLA’s financial aid phone lines.
The pilot product went on to field over 4,500 engagements and 9,500 questions, giving students instant answers to financial aid questions and freeing staff to focus on complex advising and policy matters. It also provided a valuable feedback loop, enabling teams to refine communications and anticipate student needs during critical times like FAFSA season.
Delivering Real Results
Since the pilot’s launch, it has significantly improved service delivery for both students and staff:
- +73% increase in student conversations
- +53% increase in questions answered
- Improved accuracy from 62.83% to 82.04%
- Higher satisfaction and reduced negative feedback
A Scaled Solution
Building on the learnings gathered from the pilot, DTS conducted a cross-functional evaluation of vendors and technologies to determine the right long-term, campus-wide solution.
These efforts culminated in the launch of BruinChat, UCLA’s enhanced AI assistant designed to support Financial Aid and Undergraduate Admissions, with more departments to follow. BruinChat draws from official university content to provide real-time, multilingual, and personalized responses—eliminating the need for manual content updates and reducing service bottlenecks.
Key features of BruinChat include:
- Real-Time Accuracy: Automated updates ensure students receive the most current information
- Actionable Insights: Chat analytics provide real-time data on student concerns and behaviors
- Improved Experience: A multilingual, intuitive interface supports accessibility and engagement
- Scalable & Affordable: Cost-effective deployment enables easy expansion across campus
- Single Source of Truth: Seamless content integration eliminates inconsistencies across systems
Powered by Cross-Campus Collaboration
BruinChat is the result of coordinated work across multiple teams. DTS Student Products, the Chief Data & Artificial Intelligence Officer (CDAIO), DTS Digital Foundry, and DTS CRM IT Products partnered closely with Enrollment Management to deliver a solution rooted in student needs and institutional goals.
Looking Ahead: Scaling AI Across Campus
Soon UCLA will be initiating future phases with groups like Summer Sessions, Student Accounts, and the Division of Graduate Education.
This work supports DTS’s strategic priorities of elevating the academic digital experience and optimizing business and administrative technologies across campus. By expanding BruinChat in the near future, DTS aims to deliver personalized, on-demand support for students, create unified content experiences across systems, and use data to drive smarter, more proactive engagement.
Discover More
Explore how UCLA Digital & Technology Solutions is using AI to elevate the student experience and empower Bruins across campus. Whether you're navigating financial aid questions or planning your next steps at UCLA, BruinChat is here to help—anytime, anywhere.
Try BruinChat now and experience smarter, faster support in just a few clicks.
