Marketing AI Assistant (MAIA)
Project Lead: Rodger Faherty, Lecturer
School: School of Business Technology, Retail & Supply Chain
Faculty: Faculty of Business
Contact details: rodger.faherty@tudublin.ie | 01 220 7572
Project Description: The Marketing AI Assistant (MAIA) project builds on a previous project completed in June 2024. That project created a simple chatbot to help third-year Marketing students find information about sustainability, university sustainability policies, government/council/commercial sustainability policies and the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It showed that students liked getting quick answers and found it easier to understand the university’s sustainability work. This new project will expand that idea.
Why am I running this project? The goal is to create an AI Assistant that helps students in all four years of the Marketing programmes (TU783, TU923, TU932, TU934). The Assistant will answer common questions about their course, modules, assessments, supports, and sustainability activities. It will work 24 hours a day and give clear, accurate answers based on approved university information. Students will not need to log in or share personal data to use it. Dr. Etain Kidney, Head of the School of Marketing and Entrepreneurship, has approved this project and is happy to participate in this inter-school initiative.
- Short-term goal: Build and launch the Marketing AI Assistant using existing university and public information.
- Medium-term goal: Test how useful it is for students, gather feedback, and make improvements.
- Long-term goal: Expand the Assistant for use across other courses in the School of Marketing and Entrepreneurship, and later across the Faculty of Business.
The project supports TU Dublin’s plans for digital transformation and student success. It gives students an easier way to get information and helps them stay informed and organised. For staff, it saves time by reducing the number of repeat questions and helps identify the main areas where students need support.
What have I achieved so far?
From the first project, several lessons were learned:
- Students want fast, clear answers without having to email staff.
- Chatbots work best when the information is well structured and easy to read.
- Collaboration between schools helps improve the content and design.
- The system must follow strict data protection and privacy rules.
The first chatbot is already available to students and has been well received. One student said it was “easy to use and helped me find things I didn’t know about.” The experience from that project has helped shape this new version.
