This post is part of a series of blogs looking at different types of AI tools. In this one we are looking at a selection of chatbots and AI assistants that are either general-purpose or tailored to education. These tools are increasingly used across UK higher and further education for everything from writing support to admin assistance, lesson planning, and exploring new ideas. Some are designed for wide public use, while others are focused on students or educators.
This listing includes contributions from across the Jisc AI team.
We also have a selection of other blogs in this series:
Accessibility | Content Creation | Images | Learning, Skills & Training | Professional Services | Research | Search
Quick jump-to links
General Chatbots and Assistants
ChatGPT
Description: ChatGPT is a widely used generative AI assistant developed by OpenAI, offering conversational support for writing, studying, coding, problem-solving, creative tasks, and much more. It is available in both a free and paid version, with advanced features such as voice input, document upload, and integration with web browsing and third-party plugins for Plus and Enterprise subscribers. ChatGPT is actively used across UK education for tasks such as drafting emails, brainstorming lesson content, summarising readings, generating assessments, and supporting student learning at all levels.
Getting Started: Go to the ChatGPT website to create an account. There is no cost for the basic version.
Examples of use:
- Creating Essay Plans – North West Regional College
- Create Multiple Choice Quizzes – New College Durham
- Lesson Plan Generation – New College Durham
- Building Games – Cardiff University
- Business Development Team Use – Coleg Sir Gar
- Case Study Generation – Coleg Sir Gar
- Innovative Drama Teaching with AI – Coleg Sir Gar
- Generating Podcasts and Interactive Slides – Coleg Sir Gar
- Navigating Excel with a Gen AI Tutor – Jisc
- Embracing Generative AI in Fashion Education – University of Northampton
- ChatGPT as a Legal Review Tool – Jisc
- Using ChatGPT Plus for Image Generation – Jisc
Key Information:
- Cost: Free basic plan, with subscription available for $20
- Enterprise version available? Yes
- Privacy and IPR statement? Yes, see the OpenAI privacy policy
- GDPR statement? Yes, covered in the OpenAI privacy policy
- Accessibility statement or guidance? No
- Age Restrictions: 13+ with parental consent, (See recent announcement on Teen safety here (openai.com/index/teen-safety-freedom-and-privacy
- Tried by Jisc’s AI Team? Yes, used extensively by the team and mentioned in our Generative AI Primer by Michael Webb.
(Entry created 28 August 2024, updated 19 September 2025)
Claude
Description: Claude is a conversational AI assistant created by Anthropic, designed with a focus on helpfulness, honesty, and harmlessness. Running on the latest Claude 3.5 model (Sonnet), it can analyse, summarise, write, solve problems, generate creative content, and process large files, including PDFs, spreadsheets, and code. Claude is widely used for brainstorming, research, assessment design, and student or staff support in education. Its interface allows fast document uploads, image understanding, and private conversations, making it a versatile and responsible tool for a variety of academic and professional needs.
Getting Started: Go to the Claude website, create an account and you can start interacting with Claude.
Examples of use:
- Use in Education: Widely used for lesson planning, drafting feedback, research, creating assignments, and supporting academic writing. The Artifacts feature allows for in-session creation of lesson plans, rubrics, quizzes, and creative projects, which are rendered live and can be shared or downloaded. Claude’s Agents (currently in beta) allow users to create specialised AI assistants tailored to specific educational tasks.
- None currently – we’d love submissions of examples.
Key Information:
- Cost: Free plan with limits; Claude Pro available for £18/month; Enterprise plans for institutions and education
- Enterprise version available? Yes – see Anthropic Enterprise for education, teams, and API access
- Privacy and IPR statement? Yes, see Anthropic’s Privacy Policy
- GDPR statement? Yes, covered in Anthropic’s Privacy Policy
- Accessibility statement or guidance? No formal statement, but the interface is keyboard accessible
- Age Restrictions: 18+ for individual accounts. For education deployments, schools and universities may provide managed access for younger users under supervision. See Claude Terms
- Tried by Jisc’s AI Team? Yes, used extensively by the team for document analysis, lesson design, and supporting both students and staff.
(Entry created 28 August 2024, updated 04 August 2025)
Gecko Engage
Description: A student engagement suite built for higher education that includes an AI chatbot (based on ChatGPT) for student enquiries, live chat, event management, and system integration.
Examples of use:
- Automated student support at universities using live chat + CRM integrations – geckoengage.com
Key Information:
- Cost: Demo available; institutional pricing
- Privacy/IPR: Yes, privacy policy
- GDPR statement? Yes privacy policy
- Accessibility statement: Yes
- Age Restrictions: 16+
- Tried by Jisc’s AI Team? Yes, a very useful platform and tool suite.
(Entry created 24 July 2025)
Google Gemini
Description: Google Gemini is a suite of generative AI models by Google DeepMind, including Gemini Ultra, Pro, Flash, and Nano. Gemini is integrated across Google’s ecosystem (Docs, Sheets, Slides, Gmail, and Android) and powers the conversational Gemini assistant on the web and mobile. It is designed for advanced reasoning, summarisation, text generation, code, image understanding, and more. Gemini is used in education for automating lesson planning, summarising academic articles, generating resources, and supporting accessibility.
Getting Started: Visit the Gemini website to access the basic model (Flash). For Gemini Advanced (Ultra model and premium integrations), subscribe via Google One AI Premium.
Examples of use:
- Empowering Educators by Harnessing Generative AI Tools: How to use Google Gemini – Jisc
- Teachers use Gemini to summarise long articles or policy documents, generate differentiated lesson plans, or create quizzes for various ability levels. Students use Gemini to draft essays, clarify complex topics, and receive instant language feedback.
Key Information:
- Cost: Free for basic access; Gemini Advanced via Google One AI Premium is £18.99/month.
- Enterprise version available? Yes – Google Workspace Gemini for Education and Business is available for institutional deployment.
- Privacy and IPR statement? Yes, see Gemini Privacy Notice.
- GDPR statement? Yes, covered in Gemini’s legal notice.
- Accessibility statement or guidance? Yes, see the Google admin guide to accessibility and Google accessibility resources.
- Age Restrictions: 18+ for individual accounts. Managed (school/university) accounts may enable Gemini access for 13+ with admin control and consent. See Gemini FAQ for details.
- Tried by Jisc’s AI Team? Yes, tested for summarising articles, lesson creation, and resource generation.
(Entry created 28 August 2024, updated 04 August 2025)
LearnWise
Description: AI-powered university companion for streamlining access to support services.
Getting Started: To get started, you can book a demo with LearnWise.
Examples of use:
- Jisc x LearnWise Pilot launched – Jisc
- Jisc AI Pilot Reports – Jisc
- Jisc x LearnWise announcement – LearnWise
- Institutions can integrate LearnWise with platforms like Canvas, Blackboard, Moodle, SharePoint, or myday
Key Information:
- Cost: Flexible – varies with use cases. Procure LearnWise AI directly through Chest
- Enterprise version available? Yes
- Privacy and IPR statement? Yes, see the LearnWise privacy policy
- GDPR statement? Yes, LearnWise privacy policy
- Accessibility statement or guidance: No
- Age Restrictions: 18+ or under with parental consent. LearnWise Terms and Conditions
- Tried by the Jisc AI Team? Yes – tested extensively and taken very successfully to pilot.
(Entry created 28 August 2024, updated 04 August 2025)
Khanmigo
Description: An AI teaching assistant by Khan Academy, offering guided learning, lesson-planning help, rubrics, exit tickets, and tutor-style interaction—designed specifically for educators and students.
Examples of use:
- Personalised tutoring, lesson plan generation, student progress summaries – khanmigo.ai
Key Information:
- Cost: Free for educators in 49 English-speaking countries
- Privacy/IPR: Yes – nonprofit controlled – Privacy Notice
- GDPR statement: Yes (U.S. nonprofit) Privacy Policy
- Accessibility statement: Not listed
- Age Restrictions: 18+, or under 18 with permission
- Tried by Jisc’s AI Team? Tested, an effective tool for students and learning
(Entry created 24 July 2025)
Microsoft Copilot 365
Description: Microsoft Copilot 365 is a set of generative AI tools for Microsoft 365 (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc.), based on OpenAI’s GPT-4, designed to assist with productivity, summarisation, drafting, and automating repetitive tasks directly within the Microsoft 365 suite.
Getting Started: Copilot 365 is available as an add-on to Microsoft 365 and requires a Microsoft 365 subscription to purchase.
Examples of use:
- Initial thoughts on Microsoft Copilot for 365 (and AI FOMO) – Jisc
- Copilot 365 Teams meeting summary – Jisc
Key Information:
- Cost: £23.10–24.26/user/month (annual institutional plan)
- Enterprise version available? Yes – see Microsoft 365 Copilot for enterprise/education deployment
- Privacy and IPR statement? Yes, see the Microsoft privacy statement
- GDPR statement? Yes, see the Microsoft privacy statement
- Accessibility statement or guidance: Yes, see Microsoft accessibility resources
- Age Restrictions: 13+ with parental consent for students under 18 using education accounts (where enabled in Entra ID); full commercial access restricted to 18+. Details from Jisc AI
- Tried by Jisc’s AI Team? Yes, used extensively across the AI team and Jisc
(Entry created 28 August 2024, updated 04 August 2025)
Mistral Le Chat
Description: Le Chat is an AI assistant created by French company Mistral AI, designed to answer questions and help with code creation, language translation and learning. It has three main modes: Canvas, Web access for searches, and is also capable of image generation, image descriptions and caption creation.
Getting Started: To get started with Le Chat, head to Mistral Le Chat, create an account and start a conversation. You can toggle Canvas, Web Search & Image Generation on or off as you need.
Examples of use: None currently – we’d love submissions of examples.
Key Information:
- Cost: Free to use Le Chat; pricing to build with Mistral models varies
- Enterprise version available? Used by a variety of businesses, costing depends on use-case
- Privacy and IPR: Yes, see Mistral Privacy Policy
- GDPR statement? Yes, Data Processing Agreement
- Accessibility statement or guidance: No
- Age Restrictions: 13+ as per Mistral Terms of Use
- Tried by Jisc’s AI Team? Yes, we have been testing Mistral since its launch, and its outputs are very impressive.
(Entry created 26 November 2024)
Poe
Description: Poe is a platform of AI-powered bots, powered by models from several sources, trained by different companies such as OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and Meta.
Getting Started: Free bot access & creation, with daily limits on use. Certain models are for paid subscribers only.
Examples of use:
- Custom Chatbot for Course Questions – University of the West of England
Key Information:
- Cost: Free, paid version £16.67/month or £199.99/year
- Enterprise version available? No
- Privacy and IPR statement? See the Poe privacy policy
- GDPR statement? Yes, see the Poe privacy policy
- Accessibility statement or guidance? No
- Age Restrictions: Over 13 with parental consent
- Tried by Jisc’s AI Team? Yes, used to create widely shareable bots, allowing for access to models.
(Entry created 28 August 2024)
Raffle AI
Description: Raffle is an AI-powered search engine that helps organisations access information by integrating with internal systems and using natural language processing and vector search to resolve queries. There is an AI chat as well, but for the demo, it was only AI search available.
Getting Started: To get started with Raffle you will need to provide the URL that you want the bot trained on. From there you can sign up for a 7-day free trial and get started with their chatbot. More info is available at Raffle AI Start Guide.
Examples of use:
- None currently – we’d love submissions of examples.
Key Information:
- Cost: Free 7-day demo. Costs are not available but seem to be something that comes after a demo call. See Raffle AI pricing.
- Enterprise version available? Yes, seems to be available after the demo call
- Privacy and IPR: Yes, see the Raffle AI Privacy Policy
- GDPR statement: Yes, see the Raffle AI Privacy products page
- Accessibility statement or guidance: Yes, see the Raffle AI Accessibility page
- Age Restrictions: None listed in terms and conditions
- Tried by Jisc’s AI Team? Yes, tested thoroughly on the trial, implemented on a tester site and works well for retrieving pages based on queries. Note that the trial does not allow for integration of the system, just testing the trained materials on their platform.
(Entry created 30 October 2024)
Change Log
- Version 1.1 – Added Gecko Engage, Khanmigo. Updated ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, LearnWise, Microsoft Copilot 365.
Contributors:
Tim Finch, Dan George, Helen Nicholson-Benn, Michael Webb, Tom Moule, Manya Sikombe, Sue Attewell.
Find out more by visiting our Artificial Intelligence page to view publications and resources, join us for events and discover what AI has to offer through our range of interactive online demos.
Join our AI in Education communities to stay up to date and engage with other members.
Get in touch with the team directly at AI@jisc.ac.uk