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How Marian University automated its highest-volume IT support calls and freed its help desk team to focus on work that actually requires a human.
Marian University’s IT Help Desk was managing 4,500 interactions per year across phone, chat, and email. The volume itself wasn’t the problem. The problem was what the volume was made of.
The majority of calls followed the same fixed patterns: a student locked out of their account, a faculty member who couldn’t complete an MFA reset, a new student who couldn’t get onto the WiFi on move-in day. Predictable, repetitive, and completely automatable but landing on agents every time.
With 4,500 IT interactions per year, password resets were among the highest-volume and most repetitive tasks agents handled. Students waited in queue for a problem that followed the same fixed flow every time. The work consumed agent capacity that should have been reserved for issues requiring judgment.
As more campus applications required multi-factor authentication, MFA lockouts multiplied. Every reset required manual agent intervention. Policy changes and new device enrollments created recurring spikes that had no self-service path students were stuck, and so were agents.
Every semester, the same onboarding questions arrived in bulk: account activation, student ID lookup, WiFi setup. There was no way to absorb the volume. Agents answered the same questions hundreds of times, students waited, and the help desk began
Across phone, chat, and email, students waited in queue for problems that should have been instant. Average handle time was higher than it needed to be because agents were handling automatable work. The gap between what students expected and what they experienced was wideston the issues that mattered access.
The result was a help desk where skilled agents spent most of their time on work that didn’t require their skills. Students waited. Volume climbed each semester. And the team had no capacity margin for the complex issues that actually needed human judgment.
BlackBeltHelp deployed Voice Al agents at Marian University to take over the calls that didn’t need a human starting with the two highest-volume, most predictable ticket types: password resets and MFA lockouts.
The Voice Al agent picks up immediately. Students speak naturally, verify their identity, and complete the reset without waiting, without pressing through menus, and without an agent ever getting involved.
The same approach that worked for password resets was extended to MFA in February 2026 re-enrollment, lockout resolution, and policy-change support all handled automatically. BlackBeltHelp’s Live Human Agents remain available for every call that needs them. The Voice Al handles what it can. Humans handle the rest.
The deployment followed a deliberate logic: start with the most universal pain point on any campus, prove the model, and build from there. Password resets are the highest-volume IT ticket at virtually every institution. Solving that first creates immediate, measurable relief and establishes the foundation for everything that follows.
Marian University’s path began with a clear problem and a focused first deployment and has expanded deliberately as each phase proved its value.
With two Voice Al agents live, Marian University’s IT Help Desk is resolving its highest-volume ticket types automatically around the clock, without queue time, and without adding headcount.
Students locked out of accounts waited in queue
for a password reset missing classes and
deadlines
MFA lockouts required manual agent intervention
every time growing in volume as more apps
required MFA
Agents spent significant time on repetitive,
pattern-based tasks that followed a fixed flow
Start-of-term onboarding spikes overwhelmed the
help desk the same questions asked hundreds
of times
4,500 IT interactions per year across phone, chat,
and email with agents tied up on automatable
work
The Voice Al agent resets passwords instantly,
24/7. Zero queue time. Students are back in their
accounts
The Voice Al agent handles MFA resets and
re-enrollment automatically, end-to-end, across
every scenario.
Routine IT work is fully automated. Agents focus on
complex issues that require human judgment.
New student account activation, WiFi setup, and
onboarding support are handled automatically at
any volume.
A consistent 40% resolution rate across Voice Al
agents volume absorbed without adding staff.
"Our agents used to spend the majority of their time on password resets and MFA calls. Now those calls go straight to the Voice Al agent. The team is doing the work they were actually hired to do."
- Marian University - IT Help Desk
Marian's experience reflects something universal in higher education IT: the highest-volume tickets are rarely
the hardest ones. They're the ones that follow a pattern the same identity verification, the same reset flow,
the same answer every time. Automating that work isn't a downgrade in service. For students, it's an upgrade.
Zero queue time changes the experience entirely. A student locked out of their LMS at 11 PM the night before
an exam doesn't get a voicemail. They get a resolution. That moment access restored before panic sets in
is what student support modernization looks like at the point of contact.
For the help desk team, the shift is equally significant. Agents who spent the majority of their day on repetitive
resets now work on the issues that actually require them: complex troubleshooting, escalated cases, and the
kinds of conversations that build trust between a student and their institution.
The model also demonstrates something important about how to approach Al deployment in higher ed: you
don't have to change everything at once. Marian started with one use case, proved it, and expanded. Each
phase built on the last. The risk was low. The results were immediate. The foundation is now in place for
everything that follows.
With Voice Al agents live for password and MFA resets, Marian has proven the model automated, self-service IT support that delivers at 2 AM as reliably as it does at 2 PM. In our experience, institutions at this stage of the journey typically ask the same three questions about what comes next.
Institutions that deploy Voice Al for IT support typically ask next: what about students who prefer to type? A Chat Al agent brings the same resolution capability to the chat channel password resets, MFA, onboarding FAQs consistent self-service across every channel students already use.
With password and MFA automation proven, the natural next step is extending Al coverage to the full IT ticket landscape software access, VPN, printing, device issues, and LMS support. More of the 4,500 interactions per year become self-service, without adding staff.
Replace legacy IVR with conversational routing. Students say what they need in plain language and reach the right office or agent on the first attempt no transfers, no dead ends, no re-explaining. Every call is answered, even after hours.
BlackBeltHelp is the #1 AI-powered Helpdesk platform purpose-built for higher education. It combines Generative AI, trained agents, and integrations with systems like Ellucian™ Banner, Canvas, Slate, and Microsoft Entra to answer IT, student services, and admissions questions. Trusted by 130+ institutions including Columbia University, Cornell University, and the California Community Colleges System, BlackBeltHelp manages over 8 million helpdesk interactions annually, ensuring 24x7 support so campuses stay connected and students stay supported.
