Toma Imperatorskaya Points the Way: How Tomsk State University Is Turning College Admissions Into an AI-Powered Quest
Tomsk State University (TSU) has launched an AI admissions assistant on social media. The system understands naturally phrased questions and also knows when to stay silent by handing the conversation over to a human advisor.
The new service handled more than 100 inquiries during its first 24 hours. It helps prospective students understand academic programs, application deadlines, and tuition costs. Admissions staff often spend hours repeating the same information instead of helping applicants with complex, individual situations. Developed by the Siberian Center for the Study of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Technologies, the Tomsk assistant takes over those routine consultations. It answers the most frequently asked questions and transfers non-standard requests to a human admissions professional.
Meeting Students Where They Are
In 2025, the Presidential Academy introduced a similar chatbot. During that admissions cycle, it processed more than 11,000 inquiries. The experience showed how AI can reduce staff burnout while making the admissions process less stressful for prospective students. Applicants receive answers whenever they need them simply by opening a social media app. By deploying its assistant through its VKontakte community, TSU is using a communication channel that is already familiar and convenient for young people.
Meanwhile, the TSU development team continues to monitor how its new digital assistant performs. Danil Belous, Director of the Siberian Center for the Study of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Technologies, says the team reviews the assistant's conversation history every day and is genuinely pleased with the results. In his words, the bot has turned out to be "very smart." That outcome reflects substantial AI development work aimed at making conversations feel as natural as possible.
Stefan Grows Wiser
The new admissions assistant is not the first digital member of the TSU community. The university already operates an ecosystem of chatbots with their own names and personalities. One example is Stefan, named after the first librarian of the Imperial Tomsk University. The chatbot answers 56 types of questions about the university's Scientific Library through Telegram. It provides opening hours, helps users reserve study rooms, and explains how to prepare course papers. The development team plans to integrate generative AI into Stefan, making the assistant even more capable.
The university's most prominent career guidance tool, however, is Toma Imperatorskaya. More than a reference service, it serves as an interactive guide to career pathways. The bot includes a career assessment built around TSU's academic programs and is designed to guide high school students toward specific degree tracks offered by the university. According to its creators, many traditional career guidance tests have little connection to real educational choices. Toma instead uses questions tailored to actual TSU faculties. As a result, applicants receive not only recommendations but also a resource map listing potential career options. More than 2,000 people have already completed the assessment during the current academic year. The tool has also attracted interest from teachers, who can use it to better understand their students' interests and preferences.
The university also offers an AI assistant for students who have already enrolled. Expecto Patronum, a chatbot created during the first half of 2023, helps students overcome procrastination. It reminds them about outstanding academic requirements while humorously addressing them as young wizards. When students encounter more serious personal challenges, the bot recommends contacting a psychologist or the student union. More than 2,500 students already use this digital companion.
When a Bot Does More Than Answer Questions
The foundation for remote university applications through Gosuslugi (State Services portal) was established in 2021 with the launch of the Postupleniye v vuz onlayn (Online University Admission) superservice. It marked the first major step toward fully digitalizing the admissions process.
During 2023 and 2024, Russian universities began deploying chatbots on a broad scale to handle routine admissions questions, marking a period of learning and adoption. By 2025, these assistants had taken on more advanced responsibilities. Irkutsk National Research Technical University introduced a chatbot that covered not only admissions but also scholarships and career opportunities. Meanwhile, the Presidential Academy focused on an intelligent assistant capable of comparing academic programs and admission score thresholds.
TSU has taken the next step by integrating AI directly into a social media platform while adopting a hybrid model in which complex questions are transferred to human admissions professionals.
The scale of TSU's 2026 admissions campaign is significant even without its AI technologies. This year, the university plans to enroll 4,175 students in state-funded places, with most of the growth concentrated in bachelor's, specialist, and basic higher education programs. The university is also expanding its international recruitment efforts. Approximately 1,500 international students, slightly more than last year, together with 1,300 students from Tomsk Region, are expected to join the university community. Against that backdrop, AI assistance has become a valuable tool for admissions staff. As Anna Korshunova, Head of TSU's New Student Recruitment Office, emphasizes, the assistant allows admissions professionals to devote more time to complex and non-standard cases.
