Key points:
- Administrators can use AI to enhance the educational experience from start to finish
- An AI primer for higher-ed leaders and educators
- Five strategies to prepare students for a future innovating with AI
- For more news on AI in education, visit eCN’s Teaching & Learning hub
Artificial intelligence (AI) is more than just a passing trend; it is transforming how higher education institutions attract, engage, and retain students. Adopting and integrating AI into marketing and enrollment strategies is no longer an option, but a necessity to remain viable and relevant in a dramatically shifting educational landscape faced with budget deficits and declining enrollment.
Instead of viewing AI as a threat that makes essential departments obsolete or communication less human, I believe it presents an opportunity to enhance and personalize connection with students.
Streamlining & personalizing student outreach at scale
By streamlining repetitive administrative tasks, bandwidth is increased to prioritize human connection–the interactions that make students feel at home at our institutions. One of the most significant benefits of AI is its ability to personalize outreach to prospective students based on their interests, questions, and backgrounds.
Consider a student interested in undergraduate cybersecurity programs. By tracking their interactions on an institution’s website, such as visiting pages about credit for military experience and employer partnerships, AI can tailor follow-up communications to their specific needs. An email could include a video from the department chair, a recent blog post on a trending topic in the field, information on earning credit hours for military credentials, and details about reduced tuition rates. This level and scale of personalization is only feasible through AI–a game-changer for smaller institutions without the budget, capacity, or technical knowledge to execute these projects.
Today’s prospective students expect customized service similar to what they would experience with a leading consumer brand. AI can quickly analyze vast amounts of data to tailor communication, suggest programs, and provide relevant content based on user behavior, offering a level of personalized service impossible to achieve manually. This also demonstrates respect for our students–we can not only provide hyper-personalized content, but we can also offer self-service tools so they don’t have to wait on us to enroll, register for a course, or even embed a certificate into their degree program.
Enhancing decision-making and forecasting
AI’s predictive analytics, data analysis, and forecasting capabilities are a major asset for marketing and enrollment teams. By analyzing historical data, identifying patterns, and monitoring student outcomes and campaign success, AI enables institutions to forecast future trends and adapt strategies accordingly, from program development to resource allocation. As an example, AI can identify which geographic regions or student demographics are most likely to yield high-quality applicants, bolstering targeted marketing campaigns that optimize return on investment. This empowers institutions to identify patterns and visualize data in a future-forward context quickly, rather than waiting years to gather sufficient data.
Simplifying brand storytelling and thought leadership
Concerns about AI disrupting content marketing are understandable, but I firmly believe AI is revolutionizing the field for the better. Instead of struggling with writer’s block, content marketers and thought leaders can now seamlessly integrate diverse stories, data, biographies, and research into cohesive narratives almost instantly, freeing up time for more strategic thinking, collaboration, curation, optimization, and editing. With Google’s recent algorithm changes penalizing outdated content and degrading authority scores, there is a critical need for fresh, relevant content. As Google’s new AI bot, Gemini, serves up content summaries that might reduce website traffic, it’s more important than ever for our stories to be engaging, useful, and to resonate deeply with prospective students.
Institutions have many reasons to prioritize content marketing, but the most compelling is to bring our learning communities to life for prospective students. Published thought leadership from faculty and administrators showcases expertise and academic rigor while boosting organic traffic through meaningful links from other reputable sources. Multimedia student storytelling illustrates how we transform lives and careers, underscoring the generational impact of higher education. A strong brand that is smart, welcoming, and cohesive is essential to attract and retain students–and AI is making it easier than ever to build one of these brands.
Empowering institutions and students
AI empowers institutions to make informed decisions about where to allocate resources. When costs are reduced and return on investment is optimized, valuable dollars can be reinvested in other student-centric innovations. I’m a strong advocate for meeting students where they are–from curriculum design to admissions and student outreach–which requires a hyper-personalized approach that AI can facilitate efficiently and effectively. Attracting the right students who are most likely to find success through enhanced personalized communication will ultimately lead to better student outcomes. And in the end, what is best for students is what is best for institutions.
Beyond attracting students, AI is also a vital tool in retention. Predictive models can identify at-risk students before they encounter major issues, allowing for timely interventions and more human interaction. By analyzing data like attendance, grades, and engagement with campus resources, AI can help advisors proactively connect with students who might need additional support, leading to improved retention rates and better overall student success.
Final thoughts
AI won’t ever be perfect, but it’s certainly here to stay. Ethical considerations surrounding data privacy and algorithmic bias must be appropriately addressed to ensure that AI tools are used responsibly and transparently. As technology continues to evolve rapidly, administrators need to remember to remain students themselves, staying up-to-date on AI’s capabilities.
Higher education is experiencing a paradigm shift in how it engages with students, particularly in marketing, enrollment, and admissions. Delivering a relevant, personalized experience to every prospective student is crucial for forward-thinking institutions to stay ahead of the curve.
As leaders in higher education, it is our responsibility to harness the power of AI to enhance the educational experience from start to finish to benefit both students and stakeholders. By shifting focus from creating to curating connections, experiences, and human interactions, institutions will become more responsive than ever to the needs of students, setting themselves up for success in a competitive landscape.
Chris Montagnino has spent 25 years in adult and online education building successful leadership teams and launching innovative online programs. Today she is Vice President of Online Operations at Champlain College Online, where she oversees 100+ online undergraduate, graduate and certificate programs.
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