By Eden Wade, November 3, 2026
Cal Poly Pomona’s Billy Chat chatbot sent students an incorrect spring 2027 registration alert Oct. 20, prompting confusion among students whose registration appointments had not yet opened.
The message went to students expected to register for the spring semester, even though general registration was not scheduled to open until Oct. 22. It read, “Hey [student name] We noticed that your Spring 2027 registration window opened but you haven’t registered yet. Are you planning to register for Spring 2027?”
According to Cecilia Santiago-González, associate vice president for student success and a co-founder of Billy Chat, the error occurred when a staff member copied a previous registration messaging campaign.
Billy Chat sent a follow-up message soon after, apologizing for the mistake and providing students with their correct registration dates. According to previous Academic Senate reports from 2018, Billy’s message did not apply to approximately 90% of students who do not qualify for priority registration.
Billy Chat is an artificial intelligence powered texting bot aimed at keeping students on track and answering student questions 24/7, according to the Billy Chat website.
Since Billy Chat’s inception in 2019 by Santiago-González and former communications specialist Zoe Lance, the university has been implementing Billy Chat to remind students about registration dates, important events, academic holds, campus closures, surveys, and other announcements as needed.
Unless they opt out, every student receives alerts from Billy Chat. Some are personalized, grouping students by attributes like year, first-generation status, major and registration window.
When students noticed the mistake, they took to the r/CalPolyPomona Reddit, sharing their concern and confusion.
User u/AnIconInHimself wrote the bot’s mistake startled the university, and u/IISpeedySpiderII described panicking about missing important registration information.
Guillermo Romero Ramirez, a civil engineering student, said he was confused about the message.
“Billy stated that my registration window was open,” Romero said. “It surprised me because it told me the wrong day. So, I answered that I knew my date and it was the Oct. 23.”
Linette Lopez, a hospitality management student, said she initially viewed the message without responding. She said she planned on enrolling for classes after seeing the first text, believing Billy Chat was alerting her that registration had opened early.
After the initial message, Billy Chat followed up between 30 minutes and an hour later, depending on the person, apologizing for the mistake and providing each student with their correct registration date.
Santiago-González explained how a Billy Chat campaign, or message plan, was copied from 2025 while accidentally including all registration date options. For the messages to function correctly, the enrollment appointments should be made one at a time.
“Billy notices that students haven’t registered within three days of their window opening, and we send campaigns to give them a nudge and try to help them out,” Santiago-González said.
Santiago-González said the error was a human mistake following the departure of a crucial staff member. Lance, whom she called her co-parent of Billy Chat and a “pro” manager of the bot, left the university this semester for another position. Billy Chat is now solely run by Santiago-González and Christie Counts, CPP’s assistant communications specialist, which Santiago-González describes as an adjustment.
Santiago-González used the mistake as an opportunity to reflect on improving training and safeguards for Billy Chat. After the message, she organized a meeting with Mainstay, Billy Chat’s vendor, to work on mistake prevention.
When sent correctly, Billy Chat notifications have been associated with positive student engagement, according to Santiago-González. She said students are taking care of academic holds at higher rates than previous years, and that success is linked to Billy Chat.
Billy Chat alerts will often receive friendly messages from students, thanking Billy for his help, according to Santiago-González.
“Students have this relationship with Billy,” Santiago-González said. “Students stop to talk to Billy, and I think it does show students that there’s someone in their corner in this really big place that is Cal Poly Pomona.”
According to Santiago-González, when Billy Chat receives texts about serious topics, such as mental health, he will distribute links to important resources. Those flagged messages are sent to Santiago-González and Counts to help the students on a personal level. The team reads the messages and gains insight on how students view the university.
Santiago-González said she knows how daunting asking for assistance can be, especially for students who may feel intimidated or overwhelmed by contacting faculty.
Lopez said she finds Billy Chat helpful for registration but is hesitant about trusting messages sent using AI. When Billy Chat sent the initial incorrect message, she said she quickly double-checked it.
Romero also voiced his concerns. “I can see how Billy Chat is useful for people who don’t pay that much attention to MyCPP and their emails. The thing is, though, I don’t know who’s controlling or maintaining Billy Chat,” Romero said. “It seems like the administration is doubling down on their decision to put AI in institutional work.”
Billy Chat is an AI model, although it is not a large language model, according to Santiago-González. Announcements are planned by staff, using a calendar on Mainstay to organize upcoming campaigns. Billy Chat refers to a knowledge base of 2,000 questions and answers, according to CPP Access and Transition.
AI has been a term in use long before the emergence of LLMs such as ChatGPT or Claude. LLMs are generative systems trained on massive datasets, capable of complex answers but also known to give incorrect information, according to a 2024 article in the Applied Sciences journal. Other forms of artificial intelligence can include automated mass messaging systems, similar to Billy Chat’s functionality.
“We think of AI bots as a ‘set it, leave it, walk away’ process,” Santiago-González said. “But for me, what makes Billy successful is that it has this human element. We try to understand what our students are going through and support them along the way through this tool.”
Santiago-González said she hopes Billy Chat can continue to be a great resource for students.
“When it comes to building trust with students, especially during this AI skepticism era, I take that very seriously,” Santiago-González said. “Students trusting Billy or trusting any of us humans is really important to me. We want to make sure that we prevent this mistake from happening in the future.”
