Frankfurt International School

FIS’s official website housed a wealth of information, but finding the right content often required time, context, and patience. For international families in particular, navigating a large site in a second language on a mobile device can be challenging. Meanwhile, prospective parents wanted quick answers about tuition, language instruction, and student life, and current families had day-to-day questions about parking, ID cards, or the lunch menu.

“Visitors to our site are seeking a wide range of information depending on whether they are exploring FIS for the first time or are long-time families at the school,” shared Ryan Karr, webmaster at FIS. “We want to make sure that we're providing a path for everyone to get the specific information they're looking for.” 

Ryan explained, "We were looking at adding a chatbot about a year and a half ago, but everything out there felt like it was designed for a corporate helpdesk, not a school."

The team had explored other early solutions but found them lacking—too scripted, too impersonal, and not well aligned with the education space. FIS needed a tool that provided instant, accurate answers drawn directly from the school’s own content, in a tone and language that were appropriate for their brand and audience.

The turning point came during a client success call with Finalsite, when Ryan mentioned the idea of a chatbot again. A few weeks later, the Finalsite team followed up with an invitation to participate in the beta program for Ask AI, an AI-powered website assistant they were developing.

FIS had a clear vision for what would work: a tool that could accurately source existing content, work well on mobile devices, support multiple languages, and maintain the school’s professional tone.

Ask AI checked those boxes and more. Built specifically for K-12, it uses a school’s own content to answer users’ questions, pulling directly from the school’s site and pre-defined training material for accurate, consistent, and on-brand responses.

“If you've used a chatbot with an online retailer or an airline, for example, it often comes with a high degree of frustration for most users,” Ryan said. “With a lot of those chat tools, the user is trying to solve a problem, but with Ask AI, the user is actually just looking for information, and those are two different kinds of goals.”

“I still run into frustrations with some of the chat services out there,” Ryan laughed, “but this tool doesn’t fall into that same category. Seeing in action how this particular tool worked with the information on our site helped me realize, ‘Alright, this is a different beast.’”

FIS invited their parent-teacher group, board of trustees, and leadership team to test the chatbot, and the feedback was overwhelmingly positive, Ryan noted.

“Aside from the functionality, another plus for us is that no user data is collected. That’s a barrier to entry for a lot of other tools, where GDPR or cookie policies might detract a user from the get-go. This is a tool that users can use without any worry.”

A lot stood out to the FIS team, including:

Objective, Safe Responses

Ask AI avoided engaging with sensitive questions and instead offered respectful, factual replies grounded in the school’s branded voice, redirecting users to accurate information. “It delivers because it captures all the content that you, as a school, have created,” Ryan said, adding that if a question couldn’t be answered, users were directed to submit a form, which kept engagement going and reduced drop-off. 

“It's really helping us look at the kinds of questions visitors are asking so we can cross-check our site to ensure the information is there or refine it in a way that produces better results.”

“In collaborating with Finalsite, there's a real effort to understand the intention behind the products that are being developed,” Ryan said, adding that what started as a trial has quickly become an extension of the school’s larger communications strategy, including stronger engagement and more informed decisions.

The communications team can now track usage patterns and respond to needs during events like the school’s college fair, which saw traffic spikes tied to the chatbot’s use. Access to chat logs has also revealed common questions, like when parking is allowed on campus or how to load credit onto school lunch ID cards – information that Ryan assumed current parents knew where to find on the website, but obviously needed to be repositioned for easier access.

“The chatbot is helping us identify the gaps in information we might have on our website,” Ryan said. “There have been some blind spots that we’ve discovered in some of those questions, and so we've added content to our site to address them. It’s a really helpful tool for that sort of housekeeping and understanding what users are coming to the site for.”

Perhaps most importantly, Ryan says the tool has made the FIS feel more accessible and welcoming.

“Adding this tool to our existing communication channels allows users to engage with the school in their preferred language and breaks down any barriers,” he added. “When people are seeking information, if it's available in a language that they’re most familiar with, then they're more apt to engage and continue the conversation.”