Webinar Highlights: AI Readiness & Student Support in UK Education

Our session with Jisc last week brought together over 100 attendees from the UK, Ireland, and beyond to explore how AI can transform the student experience, streamline support, and drive digital transformation in both higher education and further education settings. From sector-wide trends to real-world case studies, here are the highlights. Want to watch the recording instead? Check it out here.

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Understanding the UK & Ireland AI Readiness Landscape

Tom Moule, Senior AI Specialist at Jisc shared the latest UK trends in the education technology landscape, specifically with regards to AI adoption.

• Rising Capability & Confidence: Jisc’s 2024–2025 survey reveals a significant uptick in AI readiness across colleges and universities. Institutions are establishing dedicated AI working groups, robust policies, and staff training programs, reflecting growing confidence in leveraging AI in education.
  
  
• Embedding AI Across Functions: Adoption spans teaching & learning, assessment, reporting, marketing, and strategic planning—underscoring AI’s role in holistic digital transformation.
  
  
• Path to Maturity: As AI becomes “part of the furniture,” Jisc is committed to guiding institutions on a transformation journey—from pilot to scale—ensuring AI in higher education and further education aligns with each institution’s needs and student outcomes.

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What is LearnWise? Our Product Roadmap & Vision

Dani Mc Callion, Partner Education Manager at LearnWise, introduced our solution and upcoming product developments: 

• AI Agentic Support Platform: Learnwise integrates seamlessly with existing VLEs (e.g., Moodle, Blackboard), ticketing systems, and knowledge bases to deliver 24/7 general support, AI tutoring, and course-content Q&A.
  
  
• Security & Compliance: Access our trust hub, where you can find more information about ISO, SOC 2 and GDPR compliance, and our walled-garden approach to protect institutional data.
  
  
• Pilot Success Metrics: Across 12 UK pilots (8 FE & 4 HE), institutions saw a 98 % first-contact resolution and a 240× reduction in tickets to human support—demonstrating the power of AI in education to reduce service pressure and boost student satisfaction.
  
  
• Up Next: Real-time API integration with Moodle for personalized in-course insights, proactive messaging & push notifications, and enriched external-data connectors for finance, wellbeing, and more.

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Case Study: Multi-Channel Support at NPTC Group of Colleges

Nicola Brandon, Director of Digital Innovation in Teaching and Learning at NPTC Group of Colleges, shared her experience with LearnWise across different platforms, namely SharePoint, Moodle and website integrations:

• Ethical AI Strategy: Prioritizing safe, responsible, bilingual (English/Welsh) AI deployments to ensure equity in further education.
  
  
• Multi-Channel Integration: “Envis” chatbot on the website, SharePoint, and Moodle delivers instant answers on applications, course details and policies—24/7.
  
  
• Impact on Student Experience & Support: Marketing teams report a dramatic reduction in repetitive queries; HR staff benefit from AI-driven policy lookups; learners engage more deeply with course materials via on-demand study aids.
  
  
• Data-Driven Insights: Usage analytics identify peak query times (e.g., term start, open days) and reveal top topics—student support, applications, apprenticeships—enabling targeted content updates and further digital transformation.
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“We placed the chatbot on Moodle to help students navigate their course content and access 24/7 support. It’s helped increase engagement and personalise the learning experience by tailoring responses to their needs in the moment. We’re also gaining valuable data insights from student interactions, helping tutors identify common areas of confusion—highlighting where additional teaching focus may be needed." - Nicola Brandon, Director of Digital Innovation in Teaching and Learning, NPTC Group of Colleges

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Case Study: AI in Course Content at University of Westminster

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“At Westminster, LearnWise has clearly supported the work of our student services, but we see potential for much wider application across the university. It’s opened people’s eyes—colleagues and senior leadership alike—to the practical value of generative AI. Now we’re having more conversations about what else might be possible." - Gunter Saunders, Associate Director Digital Engagement, University of Westminster

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Gunter Saunders gave us an overview their experience with LearnWise for knowledge management and course content support:

• Diverse Student Body: With 20,000 students from 140 + countries, Westminster champions inclusion by leveraging AI to break language barriers and foster equitable access.
  
  
• Proof-of-Concept Deployments: From support-desk chatbots on the website to “Libby” for library guide navigation and “Maya” embedded in Blackboard for course-specific Q&A and quiz generation.

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“An unexpected but valuable outcome is that academic staff can now see the kinds of questions students are asking. It’s offering insight into how students study and revise—something we couldn’t see before. We’re also beginning to unlock rich learning resources, like LibGuides, and gaining a deeper understanding of student needs by analysing their prompts and interactions with the system.”

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• Unexpected Benefits: Academic teams gain visibility into student misconceptions and popular study topics by reviewing AI-facilitated queries—informing teaching adjustments and boosting retention.
  
  

Next Steps: Scaling “Maya” across modules, extending AI chatbots to mental health, wellbeing, staff development, and launching a student-support center bot to alleviate peak-season workloads.

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Ready to Transform Your Institution?

Get in touch with us at hi@learnwise.ai or directly procure LearnWise AI for your institution through Chest. Have any questions about our Jisc/Chest agreement? Get in touch with your Jisc representative.

Want to see our solution in action? Let’s co-create a prototype aligned to your goals—unlocking the full potential of AI in education, student experience, and digital transformation across the UK and Ireland. Book a call here.

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