We are excited to introduce Tommie Tech Services AI Search, an experimental AI search designed to provide technology help by allowing users to ask questions and get answers back based on St. Thomas knowledge base articles and other public content.
What it is:
Tommie Tech Services AI Search provides succinct responses to technology questions, responding with itemized lists of instructions, easy to understand explanations, and definitions.
Tommie Tech Services AI Search provides a new option for users to ask a question and harness the power of AI, natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning algorithms. TTS AIS can understand user queries and retrieve relevant information from a repository of knowledge base articles and other online St. Thomas resources. This means that users can quickly find answers to their tech-related questions without the hassle of sifting through multiple search results or waiting for human assistance.
TTS AIS is a tool intended for St. Thomas community members but can be accessed by anyone and the tool has been directed to learn from publicly facing knowledge base articles within Tommie Tech Services. This means that there are hundreds of articles behind the login of Tommie Tech Services that TTS AIS does not have access to, due to the identifiable and sensitive nature of the information in those articles. Even with this limitation, the tool provides very useful information to common problems, and that information is growing. If you do not find what you are looking for, your feedback will prompt us to create a public version of knowledge article that was previously behind authentication.
One of the key features of TTS AIS is its ability to provide real-time assistance round the clock. Whether you're facing a technical issue in the middle of the night or need urgent help during peak hours, TTS AIS is always available minimizing downtime and frustration.
What it is not:
Tommie Tech Services AI Search is not an interaction with a person associated with the University of St. Thomas, Innovation & Technology Services. It cannot connect you to an ITS representative or directly open a request for more help within Tommie Tech Services.
It's important to note that while TTS AIS strives to deliver accurate and helpful information, there are limitations to its capabilities. TTS AIS has access to a mix of publicly available Knowledge Base articles, and a specific set of public St. Thomas websites. As with any AI system, TTS AIS's responses are based on the data it has been trained on, which may not always be comprehensive or up-to-date. Additionally, it may not always return results that represent approved language, and the information provided may not always be accurate. We encourage you to provide feedback on your experience, and especially unexpected results so that we can review the content used to train TTS AIS to improve its responses.
To mitigate these risks, users should exercise caution - verify the summary and citation links provided by TTS AIS whenever possible. While the AI bot can be a valuable tool for troubleshooting common issues and finding general information, complex or sensitive matters may still require human intervention. TTS AIS should be viewed as a complement to, rather than a replacement for, traditional support channels. If you have any questions or concerns about the information that you receive, please contact the Tech Desk to speak with a representative for clarification.
Do not make decisions or take actions soley based on answers from TTS AIS!
Intended Audience:
TTS AIS results are for current Faculty and Staff, and active students of the University of St.Thomas.
How to improve your experience with TTS AIS:
- Prompting is a skill that you can improve with experience.
- TTS AIS does not know your identity or whether you are a staff, faculty or student (including undergraduate or graduate). Depending on the question you may get better results if you provide context. For example:
"How can grad students ___?" or "As a faculty member how can I ___ ?".
- General questions may receive better responses if you include "at St. Thomas".
- TTS AIS can provide results with greater accuracy if you use the follow-up option after the first results are returned. The follow-up may surface more specific information by combining your initial interaction with the follow-up question.
- Use the thumbs up/down feedback options, TTS AIS will learn from the feedback. Note that this feedback is NOT visible or shared with ITS, but please do provide feedback on your experience.
- Try changing your sentence structure - when working with AI, there are times when the same question phrased differently can produce different results!
Helpful things to know:
- TTS AIS can understand questions and return results in multiple languages.
- TTS AIS is not aware of the current date/time or the age of the content it accesses, and therefore may not prioritize new information over old information. This may lead to results which are out of date. You may be able to improve responses by including specific dates in your question such as "in fall semester 2024".
- TTS AIS search is not user specific, and ITS does not have the ability to see user interactions or questions. Do not ask questions that contain personally identifiable information (PII).
This tool is an experiment conducted by ITS, intended to improve the experience of our community members. With your feedback, we can improve your experience with the tool, and the experience of others. ITS reserves the right to change or discontinue the use of TTS AIS based on feedback that demonstrates that user experiences are not improved.
In conclusion, TTS AIS represents a significant advancement in the field of AI-driven support systems, offering users a convenient and efficient way to access technology help. While it may not always provide perfect answers, its ability to quickly retrieve relevant information from a variety of sources makes it a valuable tool for anyone navigating the complexities of technology at the University of St. Thomas.