First Steps with askUZH

askUZH is an AI assistant for questions about studying and university life at the University of Zurich. Whether you are looking for information about your degree programme, university services or administrative processes, askUZH is here to help you find answers quickly and easily.

To help you get the most out of askUZH, we’ve put together a few tips and important notes below. As askUZH is continuously being improved, you may occasionally encounter incomplete or imperfect answers. Your feedback helps us make it better.

askUZH can help with a wide range of questions related to studying and university life at UZH.

Here are some examples of topics askUZH may help you with:

• Your studies: Questions about exams, course selection, or credit transfer.
• Administrative processes: Help with organizing your studies.
• Campus life: Information about libraries, cafeterias, sports activities, and more.
• Services and offers: Information about the wide range of support services offered by UZH.

Please note that askUZH accesses a carefully selected knowledge base in order to provide reliable answers. For this reason, it cannot yet answer questions about daily or constantly changing information (such as today's cafeteria menu).

Examples of good questions:

• “Which compulsory modules do I have to take in my first year of study?”
• “Please give me the exam schedule for my first semester.”
• “What should I do if I break my leg on exam day?”
• “Where are the university cafeterias where I can have lunch?”
• “I feel overwhelmed and depressed during the exam period. Where can I find support?”

askUZH is designed to provide official and objective information. Therefore, questions that require subjective assessments or unofficial information will not be answered, nor will requests that are not related to studies or contain harmful content.

For example, it can remember your degree programme, study interests or scheduling preferences, so you don’t have to repeat them in every new conversation. No personal conversations or information unrelated to your studies will be stored. You’re always in control. Memory is enabled by default, but you can review, edit or delete saved memories at any time—or turn the feature off completely.

How to manage your memory:

1. Open the sidebar by clicking on the arrow on the right edge of the screen.
2. Click on “Memories.”
3. In this menu, you have the following options:
   • Turn on/off: Use the “Use memory” switch to deactivate or reactivate the function.
   • Edit or delete: Review, change, or remove any saved information.

The easiest way to share feedback is by using the thumbs up 👍 or thumbs down 👎 below each response. After clicking a thumb, you can select a reason for your rating and add a comment. The more specific your feedback, the easier it is for us to understand what worked well—or what we should improve. Every piece of feedback helps us make askUZH better.

How to give feedback

1. Click on the thumb up or thumb down icon below the respective answer.
2. Select one of the suggested reasons and use the comment field to describe the problem or tell us what you would have expected as an answer.

If you have ideas for new features, you can suggest them anonymously and without registering. You can also browse and vote on ideas submitted by other users.

Suggest and vote on new features

Bookmarks let you save important conversations for quick and easy access later.

How to create a bookmark

1. Click the bookmark icon at the top of the conversation (next to askUZH).
2. Select Add New Bookmark.
3. Give your bookmark a name and, if you like, a short description.

To access your saved bookmarks, simply click the bookmark icon again. You’ll see a list of all your bookmarks and can jump straight back to any saved conversation.

Like any AI assistant, askUZH can make mistakes. While we strive to provide accurate and up-to-date information, answers may occasionally be incomplete or incorrect. For important decisions, always consult official UZH sources.

Please always keep the following in mind:

• Not Legally Binding: The answers provided by askUZH are for guidance only and are not legally binding. Always verify important information using official UZH documents, such as regulations, study guides or the course catalogue.
• No Guarantee of Accuracy: While we aim to provide reliable information, we cannot guarantee that every answer is correct, complete or up to date.
• Continuously Improving: However, askUZH is continuously being developed. We regularly expand its knowledge, improve answer quality and add new features based on ongoing development and user feedback.

Now you know everything you need to get started. We hope you enjoy discovering askUZH and find it helpful.

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact us by email at:ask.uzh@dsi.uzh.ch