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Powering a travel concierge AI chatbot with Snowflake Cortex Search

  • Nonprofit

Powering a travel concierge AI chatbot with Snowflake Cortex Search

OneSix enhanced the student experience for CIEE, a worldwide nonprofit study abroad and intercultural exchange organization—by developing an AI chatbot powered by Snowflake Cortex Search.
AI & Machine Learning
AI Agents & Chatbots
Snowflake

Overview

Facing information overload for students

Supporting thousands of students across hundreds of global programs, CIEE (Council on International Educational Exchange) faced a common challenge: critical information—such as travel logistics, visa requirements, lodging details, academic credit guidance, and cultural expectations—was spread across large volumes of unstructured content.

Students often struggled to find key details on their own, resulting in repeated questions and added workload on program advisors. CIEE needed a centralized, intelligent solution that could streamline access to program-specific information while reducing the burden on internal teams.

Our Solution

An AI chatbot powered by Snowflake Cortex

To enhance the student experience and increase operational efficiency, OneSix developed a robust conversational AI chatbot, seamlessly integrated into the CIEE’s website and powered by Snowflake Cortex Search.

Key Capabilities
  • Document Ingestion & Indexing: The chatbot ingests thousands of unstructured documents, including:
  • Program-specific reading materials (PDFs)
  • Location-based “Know Before You Go” guides (PDFs)
  • Content collected via web scraping
  • Natural Language Search: Students can ask intuitive, conversational questions such as:
  • “Do I need a visa for Seville?”
  • “Will I receive college credit?”
  • “What’s included in the housing package?”
  • “How do I get around?”
  • Real-Time, Reliable Responses: Answers are grounded in the organization’s official documentation, ensuring accuracy and consistency.
“The AI solution that OneSix built allows our students and staff to access the thousands of documents and courses that we have built over the years that describe the programs and knowledge that students need to be successful and to have a great experience.”
Paul Bradford
VP of Technology, CIEE
Technical Implementation
  • Advanced Chunking & Preprocessing: Custom pipelines split content into meaningful, searchable segments.
  • LLM Prompt Engineering: Carefully crafted prompts optimize answer accuracy, context relevance, and tone.
  • Custom Search Tuning: Retrieval and ranking strategies were tailored using content type and user behavior.
  • Backend Integration: Python-enhanced logic is fully embedded in Snowflake SQL stored procedures and UDFs.
  • Optimized for Performance: Fine-tuned Snowflake Cortex implementation balances cost, speed, and accuracy for enterprise-grade performance.

Results

Transforming the student support experience

  • Efficient resource allocation: Routine inquiries are handled by AI, allowing human advisors to focus on more complex student needs.
  • Enhanced user experience: 35% of students reported the tool as useful, with zero negative responses—indicating higher confidence and satisfaction in navigating program information.
  • Unlocked deeper insights: AI-driven search surfaced patterns in student questions, giving CIEE new visibility into common inquiries and informing future content improvements.
“CIEE has been thrilled with the partnership with OneSix. They’ve been fantastic to work with throughout the entire process. We’ve been thrilled with both the results of our data warehouse platform and AI concierge, which has turned out to be a really exciting project and something that’s been a real success so far for CIEE.”
Paul Bradford
VP of Technology, CIEE

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