AI Chatbot Services

The Vendor is required to provide to design, implement, and support an AI-powered chatbot that enhances engagement, improves access to information, and supports institutional operations across admissions, academics, student services, and administrative functions.
- Chatbot discovery, UX, design, and development
•    Improving responsiveness and availability of institutional information
•    Supporting student recruitment, onboarding, and retention
•    Reducing administrative burden on campus offices
•    Ensuring consistent, accurate, and brand-aligned communications
•    Providing a scalable and maintainable AI solution aligned with state and state requirements
•    Adhere to WCAG 2.2 accessibility standards, ensuring a fully inclusive digital experience
- Content management system (CMS)
•    Conduct stakeholder interviews and workshops with state maritime representatives
•    Identify priority use cases (e.g., admissions, financial aid, registrar, it support, campus life)
•    Review existing content, FAQS, workflows, and institutional policies
•    Assess technical environment, integrations, accessibility requirements, and security constraints
•    Deliver a discovery summary, implementation plan, and project timeline
•    Design conversational flows, intents, entities, and response logic aligned with state
•    Brand and communication standards
•    Develop a structured knowledge base using state maritime–approved content sources
•    Configure natural language processing (NLP) to support varied user phrasing and terminology
•    Implement escalation paths to human support, including links, forms, or ticketing systems
•    Ensure tone, messaging, and responses reflect institutional voice and inclusivity standards
•    Deploy the chatbot within state website and designated digital platforms
•    Integrate with approved systems as applicable (e.g., admissions CRM, knowledge bases, service desks, calendars, or directories)
•    Support authentication-based and anonymous interactions, as appropriate
•    Ensure compatibility with desktop and mobile devices
•    Adhere to state its, and institutional cybersecurity standards
•    Comply with all applicable federal and state accessibility laws, rules and regulations and applicable web content accessibility guidelines (WCAG) to ensure usability for individuals with disabilities.
•    Ensure compliance with WCAG 2.2 aa accessibility standards
•    Design the chatbot to be FERPA-conscious and privacy-preserving
•    Clearly define data collection, storage, retention, and deletion practices
•    Prevent unauthorized disclosure of sensitive or protected information
•    Support state maritime governance and approval workflows for AI usage
•    Conduct functional, usability, accessibility, and security testing
•    Validate response accuracy and intent recognition
•    Perform user acceptance testing (UAT) with state maritime stakeholders
•    Address defects and refinements prior to launch
•    Provide a final readiness and launch approval checklist
•    Support phased or full production launch, as determined by state maritime
•    Configure analytics and reporting dashboards
•    Monitor chatbot performance during initial rollout
•    Provide post-launch stabilization support.