The team at the University of Birmingham Dubai use Gecko's AI chatbot to provide 24/7 service, saving 1,081 working hours in the process.
The University of Birmingham is the first Russell Group and global top 100 university to open a campus in Dubai. The University of Birmingham Dubai opens up the University of Birmingham’s fantastic range of undergraduate and postgraduate courses to Dubai’s local student population, as well as students from across the world who want to study closer to their home countries.
The University of Birmingham in Dubai is located in a state-of-the-art building in Dubai International Academic City and students have the opportunity to spend some time studying in Birmingham in the UK too.
Managing recruitment and admissions and supporting students who come to study at the Dubai campus from across the world and arranging their year in the UK sounds challenging, but, thanks to Gecko, the team in Dubai can coordinate all their communication easily and effectively and seamlessly integrate with the Birmingham campus. As the same software is used throughout the institution, students and visitors receive the same experience across both campuses.
We chatted with Sally Gough, Digital Marketing Specialist at the University of Birmingham Dubai, to discover precisely how Gecko helps her team work so closely with the UK team and deliver a great service to its Dubai students. The University of Birmingham prides itself on having a strong 24/7 student support network and it knew that it was vital for it to replicate that model in Dubai.
“We get a lot of student enquiries here, probably more per student than in the UK. We handle all applications directly, which leads to more questions and probing. And, as there is no student finance in Dubai, choosing to study here is a big purchase decision and that brings a lot more questions from parents and students,” reveals Sally.
“We also have a growing post-graduate base, where people often undertake further studying alongside their jobs. This means we get a lot of questions around how an additional qualification will impact students’ employability and prospects for promotion and how they can fit their studies around their existing commitments.”
Sally says that the culture in Dubai demands very high customer service and people are used to getting answers to their questions instantly. Unlike in the UK and some other countries, where people expect to get answers to their questions within a day or two, in Dubai, people are used to receiving feedback almost instantly. “It’s widely accepted in Dubai that you can contact any organization and expect a reply within minutes and that’s the sort of response times our applicants and students expect from us and we can deliver that with the Gecko chatbot,” says Sally.
Now, over three years into using Gecko and being one of the first universities to implement AI features, the Dubai campus has found that its students are now very comfortable using its chatbot and it has given the local team much more time to concentrate on growing student numbers and enhancing the campus experience for all.
In the seven months from 1st July 2024 to 1st February 2025, for example, the chatbot carried out 9,120 conversations, saving 1,081 hours, which is equivalent to 45 working days.
Having a high international student community, the chatbot gets a lot of questions outside of the nine-to-five Monday to Friday working hours too. Out-of-hours conversations made up 63% of all conversations over the same period and weekends were particularly busy for enquiries, taking up 33% of traffic. “A lot of our prospective international students live in different time zones to us, so it’s natural that we get a lot of out-of-hours chatbot conversations and it’s impressive that Gecko is able to handle them so well. It’s reassuring to know that our chatbot is always available to help people,” says Sally.
Looking at the questions the chatbot is being asked also helps the team to develop the University of Birmingham Dubai’s website and improve how users navigate it. “Our website used to be a little difficult to navigate and the Gecko chatbot helped direct people to the right content when the site wasn’t signposting well enough,” says Sally. “It helped us understand where the website needed improving and freed up time for us to tweak it. For example, there have been times when I’ve looked at the chatbot and thought why is it returning that wrong answer. Then I’ve found where it’s taken that information from on the website and gone in and updated it so that it’s correct. These tweaks take time, but ultimately you get the time back if it means the chatbot is answering correctly.”
If a student isn’t satisfied with the chatbot’s response to their question, they are directed to a Gecko form, which they fill out and this is then sent to the relevant team.
The Dubai campus is experimenting with more Gecko features now too. “We use Gecko email campaigns and registration forms for most of our open days and virtual events,” says Sally. “We’re still finding our way around Gecko’s features, but whenever we have any difficulties with it the Gecko team help us work out where we’re going wrong really quickly, which is great.
Sally concludes: “Our student numbers are growing all the time and Gecko is helping us to communicate with people all around the world at any time of the day or night. It’s made the team here and in England much more efficient and means the students are so much better serviced.”
See how Gecko’s AI chatbot and integrated communication platform can help your institution provide 24/7 support, save thousands of working hours, and deliver exceptional student experiences across all time zones.
