Hello, this is little AI, an intelligent voice assistant from the counselors of Hangzhou Dianzi University. I notice you were absent from class today.

This is the message students of Hangzhou Dianzi University of China get, if they miss their class. The university has started a smart attendance system based on AI.

The response of the student is recorded and is then analysed. The bigger goal is to fathom out the reason behind absenteeism and then categorise students into it, for effective remedial measures.

Attendance rates have been up by 7 percentage points in the two weeks since the university adopted the system compared to the previous semester.