Skip to main content

Help us improve the Digital Marketplace - send your feedback

Faculty Science Limited

Virtual Assistant/Chatbot Creation via Large Language Models, Natural Language Processing and GenAI

Our Virtual Assistant and Chatbot Creation service harnesses Large Language Models (LLMs), Natural Language Processing (NLP), and Generative AI (GenAI) to build intelligent conversational agents. Through advanced AI, ML, and data science, we develop highly responsive virtual assistants and chatbots that understand and assist users effectively, enhancing public user interactions.

Features

  • Provide assistance and information to the public and government employees
  • Natural Language Programming (NLP) for customer service
  • Agent LLMs to enable automated strategic planning, including PMESII analysis
  • Coding Assistants to improve efficiency of engineers, including less-popular languages
  • Only Technical Partner of OpenAI

Benefits

  • Data insights and interpretation for different levels of decision making
  • Expert team of data scientists with mathematics and physics PhDs
  • Harness LLMs, NLP, and GenAI for advanced conversational capabilities
  • Improve user experience with highly responsive virtual assistants and chatbots
  • Utilise data science to continuously improve conversational agent performance

Pricing

£700 to £3,000 a unit a day

Service documents

Request an accessible format
If you use assistive technology (such as a screen reader) and need versions of these documents in a more accessible format, email the supplier at commercial.operations@faculty.ai. Tell them what format you need. It will help if you say what assistive technology you use.

Framework

G-Cloud 14

Service ID

2 4 8 3 2 3 3 9 5 6 3 0 5 5 5

Contact

Faculty Science Limited Neil Smith
Telephone: 02071930738
Email: commercial.operations@faculty.ai

Service scope

Software add-on or extension
Yes, but can also be used as a standalone service
What software services is the service an extension to
Faculty are experienced working with infrastructure services provided by AWS, Azure, Google Cloud Platform, and other cloud suppliers
Cloud deployment model
  • Public cloud
  • Private cloud
Service constraints
Faculty is cloud agnostic and can work within the client's VPC or run independently outside client infrastructure. Maintenance arrangements are discussed and agreed with clients during the on-boarding process.
System requirements
None

User support

Email or online ticketing support
Email or online ticketing
Support response times
Normally, support for cloud and deployed services is agreed on a case-by-case basis during contract length. Faculty provides technical support on the schedule of the UK workweek, Monday to Friday, 9-5.
Post contract, we can offer a premium option for 24/7 support at an extra cost. For example, with a graduated response scheduling: Level 1 (fatal) issues (e.g. a large number of users prevented from working) have a response time of 1 hour. Level 2 (severe) issues have a response time of 4 hours, while Level 3 (medium) and Level 4 (minor) issues extend to 24 hours.
User can manage status and priority of support tickets
No
Phone support
Yes
Phone support availability
9 to 5 (UK time), Monday to Friday
Web chat support
Yes, at an extra cost
Web chat support availability
9 to 5 (UK time), Monday to Friday
Web chat support accessibility standard
None or don’t know
How the web chat support is accessible
Upon agreed requirements,
Web chat accessibility testing
None.
Onsite support
Yes, at extra cost
Support levels
Faculty provides technical support for our services on 24/5 basis as standard, with a premium option for 24/7 support.

For our services, clients receive a dedicated Faculty Technical Manager to support the on-boarding process. After on-boarding, Customer Support Engineers can provide proactive support. By default, support is provided via phone and e-mail.

Faculty provides a graduated response scheduling depending on the severity of the incident. Level 1 (fatal) issues (e.g. a large number of users prevented from working) have a response time of 1 hour. Level 2 (severe) issues have a response time of 4 hours, while Level 3 (medium) and Level 4 (minor) issues have a response time of 24 hours.

Standard support is provided at no extra cost. Enhanced support options can be agreed on a case-by-case basis. Support for other cloud and deployed services is agreed on a case-by-case basis.

Warranty: to be agreed with the buyer Support levels: - Starter: An account manager and online video calls with data scientists. - Enterprise: An account manager and on-premise data scientists and engineers.
Support available to third parties
Yes

Onboarding and offboarding

Getting started
We also provide onsite and online training and comprehensive documentation.
Service documentation
Yes
Documentation formats
  • HTML
  • PDF
End-of-contract data extraction
All user data can be downloaded through an interface or requested from Faculty.

Faculty typically deploy within our clients infrastructure, so the data doesn't leave their secure network. In these cases no extraction is required.

If the solution is deployed in the public cloud then all client data is destroyed 90 days after the end of the engagement.
End-of-contract process
Our contract will contain the product and services you can expect from us during our engagement, including any training or handover processes which will allow you to maintain our product if relevant.

Using the service

Web browser interface
Yes
Supported browsers
  • Internet Explorer 11
  • Microsoft Edge
  • Firefox
  • Chrome
  • Safari
  • Opera
Application to install
No
Designed for use on mobile devices
Yes
Differences between the mobile and desktop service
We can produce AI powered products that work on mobile and tablet devices according to the needs of the client.
Service interface
Yes
User support accessibility
None or don’t know
Description of service interface
When service interfaces are built, they will be accessible through any modern browser.
Accessibility standards
None or don’t know
Description of accessibility
If needed:
- High contrast fonts
- Default use of viridis (colourmap suitable for individuals with colourblindness)
- Customisable font size
- Other as agreed with the client; if requested to accessibility standards
Accessibility testing
None
API
Yes
What users can and can't do using the API
Our use of an API varies depending on the individual clients requirements.
API documentation
Yes
API documentation formats
  • Open API (also known as Swagger)
  • HTML
  • PDF
API sandbox or test environment
Yes
Customisation available
Yes
Description of customisation
Faculty specialise in the design, build and implementation of custom AI systems. Therefore customisation is possible to the client needs as needed and agreed.

Scaling

Independence of resources
We leverage autoscaling technology and individual users can request dedicated infrastructure to guarantee performance.

Analytics

Service usage metrics
Yes
Metrics types
The service we provide is fully customisable and we will work closely with clients to develop the relevant metrics for their needs. The designated way in which to provide service metrics is product dependant. The "Reporting Types" are indicative and may vary per service/product.
Reporting types
  • API access
  • Real-time dashboards
  • Regular reports
  • Reports on request

Resellers

Supplier type
Not a reseller

Staff security

Staff security clearance
Other security clearance
Government security clearance
Up to Developed Vetting (DV)

Asset protection

Knowledge of data storage and processing locations
Yes
Data storage and processing locations
  • United Kingdom
  • European Economic Area (EEA)
User control over data storage and processing locations
Yes
Datacentre security standards
Supplier-defined controls
Penetration testing frequency
At least every 6 months
Penetration testing approach
‘IT Health Check’ performed by a Tigerscheme qualified provider or a CREST-approved service provider
Protecting data at rest
  • Physical access control, complying with SSAE-16 / ISAE 3402
  • Encryption of all physical media
Data sanitisation process
Yes
Data sanitisation type
Deleted data can’t be directly accessed
Equipment disposal approach
Complying with a recognised standard, for example CSA CCM v.30, CAS (Sanitisation) or ISO/IEC 27001

Data importing and exporting

Data export approach
Users can export their data directly through the Faculty's user interface or request it from Faculty.
Data export formats
  • CSV
  • ODF
Data import formats
  • CSV
  • ODF

Data-in-transit protection

Data protection between buyer and supplier networks
TLS (version 1.2 or above)
Data protection within supplier network
TLS (version 1.2 or above)

Availability and resilience

Guaranteed availability
- 99% uptime
- Specific SLAs are agreed with new clients and documented in the contract
Approach to resilience
Available upon request.
Outage reporting
Service outages are reported via email alerts.

Identity and authentication

User authentication needed
Yes
User authentication
  • Public key authentication (including by TLS client certificate)
  • Identity federation with existing provider (for example Google Apps)
  • Username or password
Access restrictions in management interfaces and support channels
Faculty administrator access to the servers hosting Faculty services is permitted only by public key based SSH, with password authenticated access prohibited by the server configuration. Faculty administrators' private SSH keys are not shared, and are stored on computers in the administrators' physical possession and which use full disk encryption. Repeated failed SSH login attempts to a single server cause the host attempting to login to be blocked at the firewall level, mitigating brute force attacks.
Access restriction testing frequency
At least every 6 months
Management access authentication
  • 2-factor authentication
  • Public key authentication (including by TLS client certificate)
  • Identity federation with existing provider (for example Google Apps)
  • Username or password

Audit information for users

Access to user activity audit information
Users contact the support team to get audit information
How long user audit data is stored for
User-defined
Access to supplier activity audit information
Users contact the support team to get audit information
How long supplier audit data is stored for
User-defined
How long system logs are stored for
User-defined

Standards and certifications

ISO/IEC 27001 certification
Yes
Who accredited the ISO/IEC 27001
British Assessment Bureau
ISO/IEC 27001 accreditation date
23/2/2023
What the ISO/IEC 27001 doesn’t cover
N/A
ISO 28000:2007 certification
No
CSA STAR certification
No
PCI certification
No
Cyber essentials
Yes
Cyber essentials plus
Yes
Other security certifications
No

Security governance

Named board-level person responsible for service security
Yes
Security governance certified
Yes
Security governance standards
ISO/IEC 27001
Information security policies and processes
We align to ISO27001:2022 including all relevant policies, those policies include: Access Control Policy Jan 8 2024
Asset Management Policy Jan 8 2024
Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Plan Jan 8 2024
Code of Conduct Jan 31 2023
Cryptography Policy Jan 8 2024
Data Management Policy Mar 2 2023
Human Resource Security Policy Jan 8 2024
Incident Response Plan Jan 8 2024
Information Security Policy Feb 21 2024
Information Security Roles and Responsibilities Jan 8 2024
Operations Security Policy Jan 8 2024
Physical Security Policy Jan 8 2024
Privacy Compliance Policy
Risk Management Policy Feb 21 2024
Secure Development Policy Jan 12 2024
Third-Party Management Policy Feb 7 2024

Operational security

Configuration and change management standard
Supplier-defined controls
Configuration and change management approach
Configuration is classified as Restricted data and is asymmetrically encrypted with the OpenPGP standard (RFC 4880), using 2048 bit RSA keys protected with strong passphrases. The passphrases to these keys are stored in HashiCorp Vault, accessible only to Faculty administrators with individual passphrases, hosted on a server with an encrypted storage device and accessible only via public key authenticated SSH.
Vulnerability management type
Supplier-defined controls
Vulnerability management approach
We identify potential threats to Faculty systems through a combination of external penetration testing, internal vulnerability management (where applicable), weekly patching of servers, and following best practices relating to data security. We subscribe to information security mailing lists for security updates and use external providers to keep us informed.
Protective monitoring type
Supplier-defined controls
Protective monitoring approach
Faculty's infrastructure has a suite of automated tools that monitor and alert on user and application behaviour. All alerts get escalated to the engineering support team.

We classify alerts into 3 severity categories.

- Severity 1: Direct impact to the reputation of Faculty or its clients. 1 hour response time.
- Severity 2: Potential downtime for a subset of users. 24 hour response time.
- Severity 3: No direct impact on users. 2 business day response time.
Incident management type
Supplier-defined controls
Incident management approach
In cases of suspicious activity on Faculty's systems, such as a user accessing from a distant geographic location, or high bandwidth downloads, Faculty administrators will immediately disable the credentials of the user in question as the first action, preventing all further access to the by that user. All logs, servers, and databases will be retained to permit later examination as required.
Faculty administrators will investigate the nature and scope of the incident in order to apply necessary remediations to our infrastructure, and communicate this to Faculty management.

Secure development

Approach to secure software development best practice
Independent review of processes (for example CESG CPA Build Standard, ISO/IEC 27034, ISO/IEC 27001 or CSA CCM v3.0)

Public sector networks

Connection to public sector networks
No

Social Value

Social Value

Social Value

  • Fighting climate change
  • Covid-19 recovery
  • Tackling economic inequality
  • Equal opportunity
  • Wellbeing

Fighting climate change

As a founding member of the “Tech Zero” taskforce, a climate action group for tech companies, we’re deeply committed to reducing both our own operational Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and driving pro-environmental change/commitments across wider industry through setting ambitious but achievable targets for members of our action group:
• We publish our Carbon Reduction Plan on an annual basis and commission “Supercritical”, an external carbon foot-printing company, to bi-annually calculate our baseline tCO2e “Scope 1-3” emissions. We emitted 591 tonnes CO2e in 2022, 2.05 tCO2e per employee, comparing favourably to baseline average of ~5.5 tonnes per employee at similar technology companies. We also balance by purchasing carbon removal offsets, actively removing carbon from the atmosphere.
• We work alongside the UK Government’s Sustainable Business Council to help tackle climate change by determining the best path to achieving net-zero and boosting green investment.
Using AI for decarbonisation is one of our core external business priorities as a firm, with our dedicated ‘Energy Transition & Environment’ unit leading AI builds with projects from energy-source transition for National Grid to optimising tidal power generation.

Covid-19 recovery

During the pandemic, we supported our clients and staff, including the UK Government's COVID-19 programs, leveraging our expertise in AI and Data. We adopted and have continued to offer our employees hybrid working and flexible hours prioritising people in our return-to-office planning with funded office equipment and sustainable travel support. We regularly engage our workforce through “temperature-check” surveys , workshops and company ""all hands""
To support COVID-19 recovery, we maintain workplace policies for efficient and safe remote working, encourage anonymous reporting channels and track hybrid working effectiveness. We have wellbeing policies in place to support all aspects of physical and mental health. Our data science fellowship mobilises PhDs and academics to become industry experts, contributing to a skilled, data-literate workforce.""
During the pandemic, we are proud to have supported the NHS England with the Early Warning System utilising AI to forecast demand for critical resources, and recognised as Best Healthcare Analytics Project for the NHS by the Health Services Journal Partnership Awards in 2022.

Tackling economic inequality

As a leading company in the tech sector, we have a responsibility to train and recruit from groups that traditionally have found it difficult to find work in our industry.

• Faculty are signatories to the Armed Forces Covenant; we offer AI resettlement opportunities to Serving and transitioning Service Personnel.
• Our Fellowship programme has trained 100+ female professional data scientists, with diversity a key objective (last year’s intake was 46.7% female, treble the industry average. It won the Princess Royal Training Award in 2022.
In addition, we believe that to get the best out of staff, they must feel rewarded and be free from financial stress.
• All Faculty’s staff earn comfortably more than the real living wage.
• We benchmark salaries yearly against industry averages for individual roles and groups within the company (gender, age groups, ethnicity)
• Individual pay is also reviewed by the senior leadership team during the performance management process to ensure equal opportunity, with annual pay adjustments
• Our major suppliers (cleaning and office support) pay their staff London living wage

Equal opportunity

Faculty is deeply committed to promoting equal opportunity by identifying and tackling inequality in employment, skills and pay and supporting in-work progression for under-represented groups (e.g. gender/ ethnicity/disability/neuro-diversity). For example, given the lack of female representation within our industry, we have introduced a range of schemes aimed specifically at overcoming inequalities and barriers to hiring and retaining women in tech:
• We have active ‘Women in Data Science’ and Neuro-diversity staff communities, plus an accelerated development programme for female technologists. Female staff are promoted 2.6-months more quickly on average.
• For hiring, our staff are already 40% more gender-diverse than industry average, and we adopt name-blind hiring practices and mandatory mixed interview panels.
• Our Fellowship programme has trained 100+ female professional data-scientists, with diversity a key objective (last year’s intake 46.7% female, treble industry average). It won the Princess Royal Training Award in 2022.
• We are founding members of SheCanCode and 01Founders, supporting data-science
We will build on experience delivering existing initiatives to amplify the social value created in the delivery of any project, thereby taking more proactive steps to build technical skills amongst under-represented groups (including women, minority ethnic, and disabled) and ensure mixed teams with fair development opportunities in the contract itself.

Wellbeing

We offer a range of wider resources, including:
• 30+ Mental Health First Aiders trained to create a resilient peer support network.
• External counseling available for all staff, with an enhanced package for sensitive projects.
• Free health insurance and 20 active funded clubs/societies promoting health and wellbeing, and subsidised gym membership.
• Mental health days focused days at work such as where we provide massages.
• A safe/quiet space at the office designated to allow peace and calm for any employee that needs it.
• Proactive monitoring of excessive hours and an 'unlimited leave' policy, as well as the flexibility of a hybrid working model.
We have robust processes aligned with CIPD’s Mental Health at Work standards and use a voluntary reporting framework for transparent workplace health and wellbeing. These processes include:
• Confidential communication of health issues and accessing support.
• Proactive monitoring of excessive hours.
• Regular one-to-one meetings with managers.
• Weekly anonymous checks on workloads and stress levels.
As specialists in our sector, we understand the impact of wellbeing and have a comprehensive approach to support our teams, including:
• Regular mandatory external staff counseling.
• Clear internal support structure with weekly wellbeing check-ins.
• Dedicated secure working areas to encourage discussion and limit unnecessary exposure to sensitive matter.
Our approach also addresses common sector issues, such as physical problems from excess screen time and disproportionate mental health issues.

Pricing

Price
£700 to £3,000 a unit a day
Discount for educational organisations
No
Free trial available
No

Service documents

Request an accessible format
If you use assistive technology (such as a screen reader) and need versions of these documents in a more accessible format, email the supplier at commercial.operations@faculty.ai. Tell them what format you need. It will help if you say what assistive technology you use.