Behind the Bot: Building “Talk to the Hawk”
Behind the Bot: Building “Talk to the Hawk” with Logan Tong
Meet Logan Tong, the driving force behind UND’s new AI chatbot, Talk to the Hawk. As a User Support Specialist with University Information Technology (UIT), Logan has played a critical role in bringing this innovative tool to life — from selecting the technology partner, to researching user needs, to launching and maintaining the chatbot.
A Chatbot with a Purpose
The idea behind Talk to the Hawk stemmed from a simple observation: generative AI tools like ChatGPT have rapidly evolved, becoming impressively good at answering natural language questions. Logan and the UIT team saw the potential to harness that same power to assist UND students, faculty, and staff.
“We thought, wouldn’t it be nice if we could use generative AI to help answer the common questions our users ask us every day?” Logan explains. “If we could offload those questions to an AI chatbot, we’d free up valuable time to focus on more complex tech support needs.”
So, What Is Talk to the Hawk?
At its core, Talk to the Hawk is a virtual assistant designed to answer tech-related questions. Users can visit und.edu/uit or the UIT Client Portal at any time — day or night — and ask the bot questions like “How do I reset my password?” or “Why can’t I log into my email?” The bot searches through the UIT knowledge base and provides a natural language answer, often in seconds.
Not Quite Human (Yet)
While Talk to the Hawk mimics a friendly assistant, it does have limitations.
“It’s great for answering general knowledge and how-to questions, but it can’t do things for you—like reset your password or email your professor,” Logan says. “But it can submit a support ticket so a live agent can follow up with you.”
That makes it a helpful first line of support — especially for those who may hesitate to reach out to a person for tech help.
Teaching a Bot to Talk
Building the chatbot wasn’t as simple as flipping a switch. Logan and the UIT team spent hours combing through analytics, reviewing common support requests, and creating detailed “intents” (what a user wants) and “utterances” (all the ways someone might say it).
“At one point we had over a hundred intents, triggered by thousands of utterances,” Logan says. “It was very laborious and time-consuming.
Fortunately, the platform the university uses — from the same company that hosts UND’s knowledge base — offered powerful tools to make that process easier, even for someone without a formal programming background.
Challenges and Unexpected Laughs
One of the biggest challenges? Learning how to use the platform’s complex flow-building tools. Even though it’s mostly drag-and-drop, Logan had to learn some programming fundamentals to make the bot work effectively.
And then came the launch.
“We sent out a campus-wide email inviting people to test the bot. Almost none of the questions were about tech support,” Logan laughs. “I think people wanted to see if it was like ChatGPT. We got some pretty entertaining conversations!”
Constantly Learning
Although Talk to the Hawk doesn’t learn directly from user conversations for privacy reasons, Logan regularly reviews chat logs to improve the bot’s accuracy. Plus, as the underlying AI technology evolves, so does the chatbot’s ability to understand and respond.
Looking ahead, Logan is hopeful about new features, like the ability for the bot to perform personalized actions.
“Maybe someday it’ll help students manage their uPrint balance or even update passwords. The possibilities are growing quickly.”
A Word of Advice
For students curious about AI and chatbot development, Logan offers this advice:
“There are so many AI tools coming out every month, it’s impossible to keep up. Tech blogs are great for staying in the loop, and Google is still your best friend for getting started. And hey — come talk to us at UIT! We’re always happy to help.”
Have a tech question?
Try Talk to the Hawk anytime at und.edu/uit or through the UIT Client Portal.
