TESU transforms student support with Zendesk AI

At Thomas Edison State University (TESU), the student experience begins long before graduation—it starts every time a student logs in. And since nearly every interaction happens online, the university’s technology stack has become its campus.

That reality made AI more than a technology trend. It became an opportunity to improve how students receive support any time, from anywhere.

“Our students know us by our technology, not by our buildings,” says Jacqui Rossetter, Director of Help Desk and Testing Administration at TESU. “We have to be very forward thinking when it comes to AI and the technology our students are going to be using.”

A support experience built for an always-on university

Years before adopting Zendesk AI, TESU migrated to Zendesk after support for its previous help desk platform ended. With just three months to complete the migration, the university needed a solution it could implement quickly and trust for the long term.

“It was very scary at the time,” Rossetter recalls. “But the transition went very well because of how intuitive Zendesk is to use.”

Zendesk became the university’s central service platform, giving agents an easy-to-use workspace while building trust with university leaders.

“Having a good relationship with Zendesk to begin with helped make that an easier push with senior leadership,” says Rossetter. “It was a natural progression to say, ‘Listen, we have a company we already like that has this product. Let’s start using it.’”

From day one, AI started helping students

Launching AI could have been intimidating. Instead, the rollout felt remarkably straightforward.

“The implementation team guided us through everything,” Rossetter says. “When we turned on the AI agent, we immediately started seeing conversations come in. It was incredible to click into one and think, ‘That’s exactly how I would’ve wanted an agent to answer it.’”

Within the first phase of deployment, Zendesk AI had already touched more than 430 student conversations, demonstrating value while giving the team confidence to expand additional use cases.

Solving the problems that can’t wait until Monday

One of TESU’s highest-volume requests is a familiar one to anyone who works in IT: password resets. For an online university serving adult learners across multiple time zones, those requests can’t wait until the next business day.

“We have a lot of military students stationed all over the world—and they’re not working traditional hours,” says Rossetter. “If they can’t get into their coursework, that’s a big deal for them.”

By automating these routine requests, Zendesk AI helps students regain access without having to wait for business hours.

The university also made student privacy a central consideration in its AI rollout. Zendesk automatically redacts information like Social Security and credit card numbers, while staff training helps ensure sensitive student information is handled appropriately.

“We have a lot of guidelines from FERPA, the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, and from the Department of Education,” says Rossetter. “So it’s been very easy for us to know what to put in there and what not to put in there.”

AI that makes people more effective—not obsolete

Like many organizations, TESU initially encountered concerns that AI would replace employees.

“AI is replacing some of the tasks we do every day—not jobs,” Rossetter says. “You have to look at it as a tool, not a replacement.”

Instead of handling repetitive back-and-forth conversations, agents now receive tickets that already contain the information they need to begin solving problems.

Previously, support staff often spent multiple interactions simply collecting a student’s identity, email address, or course information before they could begin troubleshooting.

Today, AI gathers that context up front. “It’s been a huge time saver,” says Rossetter.

The impact goes beyond efficiency. It changes how support teams spend their day.

“I think AI helps morale because staff aren’t inundated with mundane tasks,” she says. “They can spend more time actually helping someone.”

Better knowledge powers better AI

One unexpected benefit has been the renewed value of TESU’s knowledge base.

As AI agents began generating answers directly from existing content, departments could immediately see which documentation was comprehensive—and which needed improvement.

“It’s shown offices where the knowledge they’ve built over the years is paying off,” says Rossetter. “It’s also helped identify where knowledge bases need to be stronger.”

Instead of creating content from scratch, the university is strengthening the institutional knowledge it already owns.

Building toward one-touch resolution

While early results have validated the investment, Rossetter sees even bigger opportunities ahead. Her vision is simple: help students solve more problems independently and enable agents to resolve more requests in a single interaction.

“I’d like to see one-touch tickets in the sixty to seventy percent range,” she says. “For a student who needs to take an exam by Sunday night, being able to help themselves before Monday morning is a huge relief.”

By combining Zendesk AI with knowledgeable support teams, TESU is helping students spend less time waiting for answers and more time progressing toward what matters most: earning their degree.

“Our goal is getting students to their diploma,” says Rossetter. “We’re there to help them—not be a roadblock.”