Case Study: University of Alberta achieves rapid AI virtual-agent deployment and 24/7 IT support with ServiceNow

University of Alberta Accelerates IT Support Using Artificial Intelligence

The University of Alberta, a global leader in AI research with 15,000 staff and 38,000 students, needed scalable, 24x7 IT support for a distributed campus environment where more than half of requests were routine (Wi‑Fi help, software purchases, etc.). After consolidating 70% of its IT onto the Now Platform, the university sought to improve response times for common issues and free service desk staff to focus on higher‑value work—especially to support a large international student base.

To address this, the university integrated ServiceNow with IBM Watson to launch a virtual agent in just two months. The chatbot handles 30+ common services via natural language interactions, correctly answered 30% of requests within two weeks (with a goal of 80%), and immediately freed up service desk resources while delivering 24x7 customer support; the university now plans to expand into predictive, intelligent automation to prevent future service issues.

University of Alberta

Stuart McFarlane

ITSM Team Lead, Information Services and Technology