u:ai – AI software
u:ai is an artificial intelligence platform specifically developed for the academic environment and part of the AI services of the ZID.
With u:ai, employees and students can:
create and analyse texts and images
analyse documents and translate them into other languages
create chatbots with individually expanded knowledge bases
Using u:ai
Open u:ai via uai.univie.ac.at and login with your active u:account for employees. You can then use u:ai.
The AI software consists of several modules and the Tailored AI function.
Modules
User guide: Using modules
- Chatbot: make text-based requests
- Image Generator: create images
- Translator: translate texts into more than 100 languages
- Document Analyser: summarise, analyse or check uploaded documents
- Lab: Create individual templates for chatbot requests
Tailored AI
User guide: Using Tailored AI
With the help of Tailored AI, you can create a chatbot where you can expand the knowledge base with individual content from documents. With the basic instruction, you can further customise the responses to your needs. It is also possible to share your Tailored AI with other users.
Personal data
- You can enter personal data in u:ai.
- However, the principle of data minimisation applies: process as little personal information as possible.
- Sensitive data must not be entered.
More Informationen: Data protection
Storage period
u:ai is not suitable for storing content permanently:
- Saved chat histories are cleared 365 days after the last prompt.
- For reasons of GDPR compliance, your u:ai account will be deleted if you do not log in to u:ai for 90 days. If you log back into u:ai later, your account will be recreated. Users who are administrators of a Tailored AI are exempt from the deletion period.
The costs for individual requests depend on the length of the request and the response. You can expect the following costs:
- Short text request: around 0.01 euro
- Large file upload or generated image: around 0.20 euros
When Internet Search is activated, the costs may be higher depending on the web content analysed.
You can find detailed information on the costs of the individual models in the modules where you can select the language model, as well as in Tailored AI. To do this, open the language model settings and select Model Pricing.
Planned features in 2026
- AI agents: Automate processes efficiently using AI
- Summary Bot: Summarise even long texts accurately
- Improvements to file upload for Tailored AIs and Document Analyser: upload up to 500 documents, text recognition (Optical Character Recognition, OCR), read all spreadsheets in Excel documents
- Transcribe audio or video files
- Additional language models, such as Google Gemini and Claude
- Export chats, for example to include and cite them in academic papers
Training courses
More information on courses and lectures related to AI, as well as the extension curriculum Understanding Artificial Intelligence, can be found at Using AI in your studies.
- Free webinars help employees use u:ai. The webinars take place several times each semester – current dates in u:rise.
- Lecturers can find an overview of all qualification measures on the AI info pages of the service unit Teaching Affairs and Student Services (in German).
Data protection
The University of Vienna provides the u:ai service in a manner that is compliant with data protection requirements.
More information: Data protection
Note
You can find out under what conditions employees can use ChatGPT at the University of Vienna on the page Using ChatGPT in compliance with data protection regulations.