Students develop chatbot with cooperation partners
Many services, such as counselling services or digital platforms, have grown over the years. They are often adapted step by step without keeping an eye on the overall system. This leads to unclear workflows, a lack of user-orientation and inefficient processes. At the same time, there is often a lack of time or expertise to systematically analyse and further develop services in day-to-day work.
This is where the "Smart Service" project seminar at Paderborn University comes in: A group of ten Master's students, together with the city of Paderborn and the Paderborn Business Development Corporation (WFG), developed a prototype chatbot that supports organisations in improving their services. The seminar was supervised by Professor Dr Daniel Beverungen from the Chair of Business Informatics, in particular Business Information Systems, and Jannika Schäfer.
Digital advice for better services
The chatbot developed serves as an advisor and guides companies and organisations step by step through the development and revision of services. For example, it helps to analyse existing offers, understand target groups or identify weak points.
Together with the project partners, the students used the chatbot to revise specific existing services: For example, a volunteering platform was analysed at the city of Paderborn, which bundled many offers but was not very clear until now. The Paderborn Economic Development Agency analysed its start-up advice service, where short consultations had not been used optimally to date.
With the help of the chatbot, the participants were able to analyse these offers in a structured manner, identify weaknesses and develop new, more user-oriented solutions. The results are now being incorporated into the further development of the services.
Added value for practice and teaching
The project shows how generative AI can help to make services more systematic and user-centred - even without in-depth methodological knowledge.
"Our project seminar opens up the opportunity to test new technologies together with students and explore their potential for service development," says a delighted Professor Dr Daniel Beverungen.
