Since 2023, our chatbot Awhina has been helping people find important information like their National Student Number (NSN). Students need their NSN to create a MyNZQA login, which gives access to digital assessments, progress tracking for NCEA, and their Record of Achievement.
Because NSN requests are one of the most common questions we receive, Awhina has been a valuable tool for students.
However, the potential for Awhina to be even more helpful for our customers is very high, particularly in the current context of rapidly evolving technology of Generative AI (GenAI). In April 2025, we began rolling out an upgrade to Awhina using GenAI capabilities. This upgrade helps Awhina understand a wider range of questions and find answers using information from our public website.
Here’s how it works:
- Awhina analyses your question and searches our website for the most relevant information – similar to how a search engine works.
- It ranks the results from most to least relevant.
- Then, it combines the best information into a clear, helpful answer – with links to the original sources.
Your privacy is protected. Awhina has built-in safeguards to keep personal information secure and prevent inappropriate content.
Awhina also has guardrails in place to prevent Awhina ‘learning’ from any personally identifiable information, user input or inappropriate language and other risks. These guardrails help keep Awhina’s answers accurate and our users safe.
When chatting to Awhina, you can choose to switch back to standard chat, or talk to a Contact Centre operator (during our operating hours).
The first phase of Awhina’s AI upgrade is now live in the International section of our website, drawing on the information publicly available on those pages. Over time, we’ll expand this upgrade to other sections.