Chatbot para atendimento do usuário do processo de concessão de diária e passagem da Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte

Abstract

Informational excess and Artificial Intelligence (AI) are paradigmatic phenomena of current times. Information professionals see AI applications as an ally in dealing with the anguish caused by cognitive overload, whether by optimizing access to data repositories or through the processing and organization of information. This study aimed to prototype a virtual agent capable of offering automated service to users of the Per diem and Ticket Concession Sector at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN), in order to satisfy their basic informational needs regarding the payment process. daily allowance and purchase of air tickets on behalf of the Institution. The prototyping strategy adopted in this work was inspired by the Design Science Research (DSR) research method, which has been developed as a way of providing relevance and scientific rigor to the study that deals with the design and construction of artifacts. Data collection was made possible by documentary research procedures (carried out in remote user support records) and questionnaire (applied to staff who collaborate in the process of granting daily allowances and tickets). The analysis of the collected data made it possible to identify the main demands for information from the user served by remote support, as well as a survey of the administrative sectors participating in the granting of daily allowances and tickets at UFRN. Having gathered the necessary elements for prototyping, a navigation-based chatbot was delivered, built with the help of a commercial development platform, being accessible through an instant messaging application that is increasingly used. At the end of the study, an assessment is made of what was carried out, indicating actions for the evolution of the virtual agent, improvements to be implemented in the development methodology and suggestions for future work, such as carrying out an evaluative study of the constructed virtual agent with the participation of collaborators and users