The Future of Artificial Intelligence at NYU
Victor Kiani proposed NYU Assist, a single place where NYU students can find university information and services by asking for what they need.
NYU’s resources are spread across school, campus, and departmental websites. In October 2026, Victor Kiani proposed NYU Assist to the university’s AI Leadership Council: one place where students can find information and services by asking for what they need.
The problem
Setting up NYU VPN, creating an email alias, getting an NYUCard, or finding a deadline all start with the same question: which office or portal handles this? Students should not have to answer that before they can get help. A single place to ask would save them time, make services easier to discover, and cut routine questions to staff.
Tabs open 123456
Which office handles this?Students search office by office.
One place to ask.Answers still come from each office’s own pages.
The idea
Victor described it as an America.gov for NYU: one entry point across every school and campus. A student asks a question and gets an answer, a link to the official page, and the next step. New-student onboarding would come first. “What do I need to do before I arrive?” would return a checklist built for the student’s school and campus.
How it would work
The first pilot would cover onboarding and a few common service questions. It would combine keyword and semantic search with retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), so answers come from maintained official NYU pages, cite those pages, and keep school and campus requirements apart. The pilot would be measured on answer accuracy, task completion, and time spent, compared with the current process.
How it would work
Ask in plain words.
It searches official NYU pages.
It answers only from those pages.
Every step cites its source.
Every answer cites official NYU pages.
Official NYU pages
Your school1
Registrar
NYUCard2
Bursar
NYU IT3
Housing
What do I need to do before I arrive?
Searching official NYU pages…Found 3 official NYU pages
Here’s what to do before you arrive:
- Check your school’s requirements1
- Get your NYUCard2
- Set up NYU VPN and your email alias3
1Your school2NYUCard3NYU IT
Later versions could connect to existing systems. Students could sign in, check outstanding requirements or request status, and complete supported tasks such as submitting a service request. They would review and confirm any change before it is submitted. The service would build on NYUHome, the Support Center, and NYU’s existing AI work.
Later versions
Ask it to do something.
It shows the change first.
Nothing changes until you confirm.
Then it completes the task.
It acts only after you confirm.
NYU email settings
Email alias
vk2274@nyu.eduvictor.kiani@nyu.edu
Set my alias to victor.kiani@nyu.edu
Signed in as vk2274
Update your email alias
Current
vk2274@nyu.edu
New
victor.kiani@nyu.edu
Nothing changes until you confirm.
Done. Your alias is updated.
Who would run it
Victor proposed to serve as Project Lead from scoping through launch, defining requirements, coordinating with NYU IT and service offices, and leading testing, rollout, and evaluation. NYU IT would own and operate the service long term, and each office would keep its own information current. The team would compare API-based and NYU-hosted models on privacy, access controls, and running costs.
Where it stands
The proposal went to the AI Leadership Council in October 2026, and Victor discussed it with NYU’s Chief Information Officer. It became clear that NYU was still building the governance and infrastructure a university-wide AI service would rely on, and that this groundwork, including privacy and security, had to be settled before a project like this could launch.
