Case study: Metropolia Automated 90% of Pre-Arrival International Student Support with Annie

🌎 Meeting the Needs of a Growing International Community

International student mobility continues to grow across Europe, bringing significant opportunities for higher education institutions. Simultaneously, increasing international enrolments create new challenges for universities that must provide clear, timely, and accessible guidance to students arriving from diverse educational and cultural backgrounds.

With students arriving from more than 90 countries, Metropolia University of Applied Sciences in Finland has seen a growing demand for guidance services, particularly during the critical period between admission and the beginning of studies.

To meet this demand, Metropolia and Annie Advisor launched a pilot in early 2026. The goal was simple: Scale guidance without compromising the human element and ensure equity, making sure every student gets the same high-quality support.

The pilot focused on the pre-arrival phase, testing how AI can bridge the information gap before students even set foot on campus.

⚖️ Balancing Student Support with Staff Resources

As Finland’s largest university of applied sciences, Metropolia has seen steady growth in international enrolments, with international students now making up 14% of the student body.

While the growth reflects a successful internationalisation strategy, it brings a practical hurdle: the need for supporting students who are still in their home countries. Incoming students often face urgent questions regarding immigration,  starting their studies and overall life in Finland. Although the information is available online, it is often scattered across various platforms. This leads to a massive surge in repetitive emails to multiple departments simultaneously. For Metropolia’s staff, this means a heavy manual workload and delays in response times, right when clear communication is most critical for the student experience.

To solve this, Metropolia began looking for a way to provide efficient, high-quality guidance that scales alongside their growing international community. Metropolia and Annie Advisor teamed up to create a support tool that would tackle the need for timely, accurate support for incoming students.

🤖 Designing Annie, A  Peer Mentor for Every Student

The pilot addressed two core challenges that often overwhelm student services:

1. Student Uncertainty. Before arriving in Finland, international students face multiple complex tasks of immigration, housing and admin tasks. Even if info exists online, it’s often scattered, leaving students feeling lost.
2. Staff Overload. Uncertainty leads to a flood of repetitive emails sent to multiple departments. Staff spend hours answering the same basic questions, creating delays and inefficiencies.

We tested if Annie could act as an instant first point of contact, answering common questions instantly and freeing staff for more complex, one-on-one guidance. The designed approach followed three core principles:

• Proactive Help: Instead of students searching for answers, Annie reaches out to them first.
• 24/7 Support: Annie handles routine questions instantly, day or night.
• Human Connection: If a question requires individual assessment, Annie smoothly routes the student to a staff member.

Annie’s knowledge was built around six themes every international student needs: living and working in Finland, healthcare, social security, housing, immigration processes, and studying at Metropolia.

The Right Tone of Voice

The tone of the advisor was designed to be supportive rather than authoritative. Instead of giving long or complicated explanations, Annie was designed to provide short, direct answers as someone who had recently gone through the same process and could guide new students toward helpful resources. This peer-like approach ensures accuracy while keeping the conversation light and accessible.

Testing with 175 Students

In January 2026, we launched the pilot with 175 students from three international degree programmes at Metropolia. The mission was to see how Annie could assist students as they prepared for their move to Finland.

Choosing the right channel

We quickly learned a valuable lesson about accessibility. While we initially tried SMS, it only reached 13% of the students due to international coverage issues. We adapted immediately, moving to WhatsApp as our primary channel. This shift ensured that every student could easily connect with Annie on a platform they already know and trust.

Ensuring Accuracy and Reliability

The process started with the Metropolia team identifying key themes and collecting staff knowledge to build a reliable information base. Before the launch, the team tested the system with simulated conversations to verify that all answers were correct. This work ensured that Annie could provide students with a clear and easy way to get help with study preparation and practical moving tips during their first weeks.

👉 The Results: High Engagement & Real Impact

The pilot proved that international students are not just willing, but eager to use AI as their first point of contact.

• 90% Automation Rate: Only 11 out of 137 conversations needed human intervention.

• 51% Participation: Out of 175 invited students, 90 responded immediately.

• 87 % Rate Annie as Essential: Participating students indicated the service was a vital part of their onboarding, stating they would be disappointed if it were removed.

💚 Understanding the Student’s Journey

The pilot mapped friction points international students face during their transition. The data revealed three main areas where students feel the most uncertainty:

1. Starting Studies: Orientation, late arrivals, and the first steps on campus. 
2. Digital Tools: How to activate university accounts and use Moodle or Outlook.
3. Life in Finland: Practicalities like housing, cost of living, and finding work.

By identifying these uncertainty hotspots, Metropolia is able to provide proactive guidance where it was needed most, preventing simple questions from escalating into a heavy workload for student services.

🤝 Solving Challenges for Both Students and Staff

The feedback confirms that Annie, when implemented thoughtfully, enhances the human experience:

• For Students: 87% reported they would be very or somewhat disappointed if they lost Annie. The bot ensured students always had a place to ask for help during their relocation.
• For Staff: The pilot proved that AI streamlines the workload instead of adding to it. By automating routine replies, staff could focus on meaningful person-to-person guidance.

“We wanted the bot to guide students to the right info, not replace human connection – and that’s exactly what happened.” –Metropolia Staff Member

💡 Lessons Learned

Proactivity is key. Reaching out before students arrive drastically reduces their anxiety.

Automation works. Routine practical questions are perfect for AI, freeing up human hours.

Human support remains crucial.  For personal or complex matters, students were always directed to the personnel.

Progress over perfection. AI systems should be developed iteratively – launch, learn, and improve.

🔮 Looking Ahead

Following the pilot’s success, Metropolia plans to expand Annie’s role. Future steps include integrating wellbeing support services, expanding the knowledge base to cover the entire student journey and scaling the service to reach even more international student groups. 

The Future of Student Support

This pilot is a practical blueprint for how AI can support a growing global student body responsibly. By combining proactive messaging with a clear path to human experts, Metropolia is ensuring that no student is left wandering the fragmented information alone.

The takeaway for Educational Institutions 

Scaling international recruitment doesn’t have to mean scaling your support team’s stress. Metropolia proved that AI can handle the volume while humans handle the value.

💬 Experience it yourself. See how Annie handles real-life student questions and provides instant support.

➡️ Try the Annie Bot here.