AI assistants for students, colleges, and education agencies
Generative AI Integration
Education
GPT 4.1, FastAPI, React, React Native, GitHub, Lambda, DynamoDB
2022
UK
January 2025 — Present
Cosmo — 1
Julia — 4
Global Study Hub — 4
Executive Summary
Impressit was involved in the fine-tuning and development of three AI assistants for our client, Global Study:
- Cosmo. Our team improved the chatbot's response relevance and speed, and integrated a more cost-effective third-party web scraping tool.
- Julia AI. Julia was modelled after Cosmo and reconfigured to serve a new purpose: strengthening universities' ability to engage and convert prospective students through their websites.
- Global Study Hub. A platform for students aspiring to study at one of the world's top 200 universities. The product is live and enables students to navigate their full journey to enrolment — from identifying the best university options for their circumstances to tracking every step of the application process.
Client Background
Global Study builds proprietary AI infrastructure for the international student recruitment market. Their products power two distinct experiences: Julia, an AI website chatbot that helps universities and other schools capture and qualify prospective student inquiries, and Elite Schools Hub, a platform that guides students through every stage of their journey to a top 200 university — from shortlisting options to submitting applications to securing routinely needed services such as accommodation and health insurance.
Challenges and Objectives
Global Study's previous development partner was charging rates that didn't reflect the value delivered. On top of that, the web scraping solution they had recommended came at an unnecessary cost — a better alternative existed but hadn't been explored.
And when the client wanted to dig deeper into technical decisions, the project manager kept that conversation at arm's length. Global Study wasn't just looking for a cheaper team. They wanted one that would actually engage.
Cosmo
Cosmo is an AI chatbot designed for student recruitment agencies that assists students in their journey to study abroad. It helps student counsellors generate faster, more personalised responses to student queries — drawing on OpenAI's dataset, custom datasets provided by Global Study (covering admission costs, deadlines, and other critical data), and additional materials uploaded by the agencies themselves, such as PDFs and Excel files. For example, a student might ask: "I have a budget of X and want to study computer science in Germany. What are my options?" Cosmo processes the query and delivers recommendations based on this combined data infrastructure.
Challenges addressed:
Initially, Cosmo relied primarily on OpenAI's dataset, which resulted in many inaccurate and low-quality responses that limited its usefulness for both students and agencies.
Shortly before Impressit was engaged, a web scraping feature had been built to extract data from websites and transfer it into a custom memory bank. However, the scraping tool in use was prohibitively expensive. Impressit identified a more cost-effective alternative and integrated it as a replacement.
Even with the new scraping solution in place, response quality remained below expectations. To address this, Global Study brought in a former Google data scientist to work alongside the Impressit team. Together, they achieved a significant improvement in response quality — an advancement that was later carried forward into Julia.
Julia
Unlike Cosmo, Julia was designed as an AI website chatbot to improve website visitors' engagement and experience. Integrated as a widget on university websites, Julia can instantly and accurately answer hundreds of questions — drawing on information extracted from the university's own website and other approved sources. Julia can also ask visitors questions proactively, including requesting contact details from those who want the university to follow up with them.
How does it work for universities?
- Captures key student information (e.g., email addresses, phone numbers, level of interest).
- Utilizes this data to populate a lead dashboard, which allows university sales teams to contact students, answer follow-up questions, and promote their offerings effectively.
- Enables customization, such as tailoring greeting messages and prompts to reflect the university's tone.
Challenges addressed:
The development team encountered technical challenges due to the complex integration of CSV files, PDF documents, and the GPT model in use at the time, which had limitations in processing various file types. To address this, Global Study brought in a former Google data scientist with startup experience to work alongside the Impressit team.
Global Study Hub
Elite Schools Hub is an independent, AI-powered platform designed to help students navigate their entire journey to the world's top 200 universities. Unlike generic AI tools, it combines a carefully curated and verified dataset with purpose-built guidance — helping students determine their best-fit university options based on their academic profile, circumstances, and goals.
A structured journey tracker supports students from early planning through to enrolment, helping them stay on track and avoid last-minute pressure. The platform also covers the practical side of studying abroad — accommodation, insurance, banking — giving students a clear picture of what to expect at every stage.
The result: students who are better informed, better prepared, and more confident in the choices they make.
Value Delivered
By collaborating with GlobalStudy, Impressit delivered measurable results across all three products.
Impressit improved Cosmo's response accuracy from 18.75% to 92.86% — through targeted model fine-tuning and replacing an overpriced scraping tool with a more cost-effective alternative.
Julia was modelled after Cosmo and reconfigured for a new use case: an AI website chatbot for universities. The team added lead generation capabilities, contact capture functionality, and customisation options that allow each university to adapt Julia to their specific requirements while maintaining compatibility with existing systems.
For Elite Schools Hub, four Impressit developers focused on end-to-end development to create a seamless and intuitive user experience. An initial version of the platform launched in December 2025, with several enhancements delivered since.
As a result, Julia's key possibilities include:
- Students can ask up to five questions for free before transitioning to the subscription model ($2/month).
- Notes and notifications can be added to responses, serving as reminders for essential application tasks.
- Data is sourced from a broad spectrum, ranging from web links to inaccessible documents, such as CSVs and PDFs, to ensure comprehensive recommendations.
Finally, four of our developers are actively working on the Global Study Hub, focusing on end-to-end development to create a seamless and intuitive user experience.
Future Outlook
GlobalStudy continues to build AI infrastructure that shapes how students navigate the path to top universities — and how universities engage and recruit them online. Impressit remains an active development partner, adapting to the client's evolving product needs as both platforms grow.
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