Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University (NTU) has made another step in digital transformation by upgrading its Lyon Bot virtual assistant with generative AI with the help from CloudMile.
By integrating Google Gemini LLM to enhance the bot’s responsiveness, particularly for housing-related student inquiries, this new setup has saved approximately 14.5 days of administrative effort every month, freeing up staff to focus on more complex, human-centric work, according to NTU’s CIO, Alvin Ong.
The university originally launched Lyon Bot in 2020 using Google Dialogflow Essentials to support the influx of nearly 6,000 freshmen during enrollment. However, as student needs evolved, the traditional intent-based chatbot struggled to keep up, requiring manual data tagging and updates. Now, with CloudMile’s support, the AI assistant has transformed into a much more advanced system powered by multi-layered generative AI that uses real-time data from centrally managed sources to improve accuracy, speed, and engagement.
“We’re moving from an intent-based NLP chatbot to a GenAI-powered one for housing inquiries, aiming to boost flexibility, scalability, and the overall user experience,” said Mr Ng Kee Haur, Deputy Director of Enterprise IT at NTU. He added that the university is maintaining a hybrid model to retain the benefits of both systems, where appropriate.
Other than that, CloudMile has delivered tailored consulting and multi-cloud support to help NTU deploy a scalable, stable conversational AI framework. Jeremy Heng, Managing Director of Southeast Asia at CloudMile, emphasized their goal of driving innovation in education, saying the project showcases how generative AI can significantly enhance human-computer interaction.
With this move, NTU sets a new benchmark in how AI can streamline university operations and improve student engagement at scale.
