What is a research AI chatbot?
Here it is the chat on the website of a research institute or laboratory that answers outside inquiries from companies, sponsors, foundations and other universities, by text or voice in 40 languages. Zanus AI puts the same AI on the phone, e-mail and web forms: it answers from your approved expertise, asks your intake questions, routes the inquiry to a researcher or office and books the first call. It is not a tool for doing the research itself.
How does the AI know what our researchers work on?
It knows only what you give it: your expertise pages, service list, core facility catalog, equipment and the topics each researcher or center takes. Lisa reads your website for the rest, and you approve every change. When a question goes beyond that approved material, the AI says so and passes the inquiry to a person instead of guessing.
Will the AI give a scientific opinion or say whether a project can work?
No. It gives no scientific opinion, does not judge methods or feasibility and never predicts results. It describes what your institute offers in your approved words, asks the intake questions and hands the scientific conversation to the researcher you named for that topic, with everything the partner said already on the record.
Can it agree to budgets, timelines or contract terms?
No. The AI commits to no project terms: no budget, timeline, intellectual property or publication arrangement. For routine lab services with a published fee schedule, it can draft a quote from your own price list, and that quote waits for a staff member's yes before it is sent. Sponsored research and partnership terms stay with your office.
Does it work for a testing laboratory as well as a research institute?
Yes. A contract or testing laboratory sets it up the same way: its services, the sample rules and turnaround times it publishes, and the staff who take each kind of request. The chat and the phone answer from that list, the web form asks for sample type and count, quotes come from the laboratory's own price list and wait for a yes, and status questions become tracked tickets.
How does it decide which researcher or office gets an inquiry?
By the topics and rules you set. Each office, such as sponsored research, industry partnerships, core facilities or lab services, gets its own subjects and its own mode: AI only, AI first or a person first. On the phone the AI transfers the caller and says who is calling and why; by chat, e-mail or form the inquiry reaches that office with the whole conversation.
Which intake questions can it ask an industry partner?
The ones your institute writes. Common ones are the organization and contact, the research area, the sample type and volume, the timeline, how the work would be funded and whether an agreement is needed before details are shared. The answers are saved to the inquiry's record, so the researcher starts the first call already knowing the basics.
How is confidential partner information handled?
You decide. An always-say rule can ask partners not to send proprietary details before an agreement is in place, call recording is off as shipped, and staff see only the offices they are given. Whether your set-up meets your institution's research security and privacy obligations is decided by the institute and its advisors.
Can outside users book our core facility instruments or a facility tour?
Yes, within the calendars you open, so it also serves as lab scheduling software for outside users. Each instrument, room or staff member can have its own calendar, and the AI books into it by phone, chat or form, with a confirmation and reminders. AI Auto-Call confirms the day before: a yes keeps the session, a no frees it. Who may use an instrument stays your rule.
Does it replace our grants or research administration system?
No. Zanus AI is the front office in front of those systems: it answers, routes, books and follows up, and keeps the record of every conversation with a partner. Awards, budgets, agreements and research records stay where they are today, handled by your office and the tools it already uses.
Which languages does it speak with international partners?
Their own. The phone answers each caller in the language they speak, and the website chat works in 40 languages by text or by voice. A call can be passed to the colleague who speaks the partner's language. The institute keeps its own number, too: the line is simply forwarded, with nothing to port.
How much does a research AI chatbot cost for an institute or laboratory?
Zanus AI is priced per company, never per seat, so every center, core, laboratory and office of the institute works under one subscription and a new researcher joins without a new seat. You pick the modules you need, and the plans are on the pricing page.
What is the difference between the 7-day free trial and the demo?
The free trial builds a sandbox around your own institute from its website for 7 days, with no card: a test line, your site with Lisa on it and a dashboard. The demo shows the AI front office ready-made, with nothing to set up, and reaches your inbox in about 2 minutes.
