Prospective students at the University of Nottingham Malaysia (UNM) can now use an AI agent, NOVA (Nottingham Online Virtual Assistant), to get real-time answers on courses, scholarships and accommodation, and to book adviser calls or campus tours.
Powered by Salesforce’s Agentforce, NOVA builds on UNM’s earlier adoption of Salesforce tools including Sales Cloud, Marketing Cloud, Digital Engagement and Einstein, extending automation into student recruitment and admissions.
The rollout is expected to benefit international students, who account for more than half of UNM’s applicants and often submit enquiries outside Malaysian business hours. By offloading routine administrative tasks to the AI agent, the university aims to free admissions teams to focus on higher-value, in-person engagement.
“A real counsellor will still be reachable through the interaction, so we’re not removing that from the experience. However, by embedding AI-driven solutions into campus life, we hope to give students a glimpse of the real-world impact of technology and equip them to take the same innovative mindset into their careers,” says Jagdish Singh Malhi, director of Student Recruitment and Marketing at the University of Nottingham Malaysia.
Beyond operational efficiency, UNM says the deployment is intended to support its broader digital transformation strategy, with Agentforce helping improve applicant conversion rates and student satisfaction by delivering faster and more personalised responses at scale.
“By harnessing Agentforce on the deeply unified Salesforce Platform, UNM is reimagining how work gets done across admissions and student services — uniting human expertise with autonomous AI agents to deliver personalised guidance at scale and unlock a truly borderless learning experience,” says Arun Kumar Parameswaran, executive vice president and managing director for South and Southeast Asia at Salesforce.
