Lehigh Admissions Office introduces live chatbot

Meet Clutch, the live assistant chatbot that was introduced by the Office of Undergraduate Admissions and recently launched on additional university websites, including Lehigh’s Financial Aid Office. 

The chatbot — or “Hawkbot” — was created by an external Artificial Intelligence robotics company called Gecko and can answer general questions. 

Bruce Bunnick, director of undergraduate admissions, said it was first used by the Admissions Office in May. 

Jennifer Mertz, assistant vice provost for financial services and director of financial aid, said she thought it could benefit their office as well. 

In addition to these web pages, the Hawkbot is live on the websites of the College of Health, College of Business and College of Engineering. Students and faculty can access the Hawkbot on the bottom corner of each webpage via a message icon. 

Deputy Provost of Graduate Education Sabrina Jedlicka said Clutch is set to join the College of Arts and Sciences and College of Education later this semester.

Bunnick said Gecko manages the Hawkbot itself, but Lehigh staff have administrative access to ensure the information it shares is accurate.

“We are permitted to train the chatbot in terms of standard questions that could come in such as visitation schedules, interview schedules, open house schedules, etcetera,” Bunnick said. 

According to an email sent by the Financial Aid Office to the campus community, students should understand that Clutch is meant to be used for “guidance purposes only.” 

Jedlicka said Clutch is useful for prospective students who want an answer about something and don’t necessarily want to go through the process of waiting for an email. 

“It’s really powerful for the on-demand requests,” Jedlicka said.

Mertz said if a question needs more explanation, staff can contact the individual via email. 

Mertz said students can initiate a conversation with Clutch by inputting their first and last name, email address, Lehigh identification number and selecting whether they are a prospective student or an enrolled student. She said individuals aren’t required to provide this information to use the tool.

She said she was skeptical of the financial aid office’s use of Clutch because she relies on providing accurate information, but her mind changed when they tested the chatbox. 

“It was giving great responses — better responses than our humans would give — (so) we thought, ‘yeah, we should use this,’” Mertz said.

Bunnick said Clutch only uses information on the Lehigh website the individual is on, and the chatbox doesn’t take data from or send data to external sites. 

“The bot is not out there scraping old Google sites,” Bunnick said.

Jedlicka said the Hawkbot’s use of information solely from the isolated subpage makes it only able to answer questions specific to that office or college.

Bunnick said the Hawkbot on the admissions page can answer questions such as how many Advanced Placement credits Lehigh allows and when students declare their majors. 

He said there are multiple responses programmed based on the major and college the questioner specifies.  

Jedlicka said the use of generative artificial intelligence is an important step for Lehigh to understand the tools and showcase their use of modern technology.

“I am viewing this as an experiment, and in some ways to see how this type of tool is used compared to a few of the other tools that we have to help students select graduate programs,” Jedlicka said.

The chatbot is monitored, Mertz said, so on the off chance that it gives misinformation or if a question requires a more in-depth explanation, the faculty can reach out to the email. She said monitoring the conversations can allow faculty to train Clutch to give more accurate responses.

Bunnick said he doesn’t believe the chatbot has diminished offices’ customization or willingness to be personable. 

“This is just an effort to help us understand if there are general questions that can be answered very simply,” he said.