Missed a lecture? This AI agent at Bar-Ilan University helps students catch up

When Yarden Shay missed some classes in her first semester at Bar-Ilan University (BIU) last year, she struggled to get up to speed. The lectures were on legal responsibility, just one of 22 modules in the first year of her undergraduate degree in criminology and psychology.

Plugging that knowledge gap with borrowed notes while staying on top of six to eight hours of fresh lectures daily was an ordeal, she recalls.

“It’s like a gap that is growing through time,” says Shay.

“So, you’re already falling behind, and you’re getting new information that isn’t connecting, because you don’t have the previous information. The stress is everywhere.” That stress is less an issue for her today.

Yarden Shay, an undergraduate at Bar-Ilan University (BIU) who is studying for a degree in criminology and psychology. Photo by Yarden Lev for Microsoft.

In February, BIU piloted an AI agent on its Moodle learning platform that helps students search and summarize course materials using natural language queries, turning these vast resources into learning support. Powered by Azure AI Services and developed by KPMG and OpenApp using Microsoft Copilot Studio, the agent is grounded exclusively in course materials uploaded by BIU’s teaching staff, including recorded lectures, transcripts, presentations and articles. Students can ask the agent to zero in on a topic mentioned in a lecture, create summaries and even test them using the quiz feature.

The pilot covered 71 courses and about 2,400 students at BIU, one of Israel’s leading public research universities with over 20,000 students in Ramat Gan, near Tel Aviv. Available in Hebrew, Arabic and English, the agent will be rolled out to another 100 courses in the first semester of the 2026/27 academic year, which began in October.

The agent operates in the university’s secure Microsoft Azure environment.

Using AI for active study

“A few students asked me for my summaries, and it felt so good that they had helped me, and I can now help them,” she says.