AI has become accepted by colleges and universities as an effective tool for automating several tasks. Chatbots are used to answer students’ questions about class scheduling or check in with them about their mental health. AI-generated emails help students remember important deadlines, prompt them to register for classes, turn in assignments and pay their fees on time. AI-based software is increasingly able to detect plagiarized assignments as well. 

AI is even used in colleges to simplify the process of hostel management for all stakeholders involved-students, staff and management.

A professor at Georgia Tech even used AI to build a virtual teaching assistant called Jill Watson. Jill can be used for student evaluations. Higher education is advancing from its initial forays into the digital transformation that involves automating daily tasks, digitizing workflows and creating dashboards to improve their analytics. Institutions are now making use of AI to do better things.  

Addressing challenges 

College leaders have learned that AI can do more than merely churn out routine prompts. They are starting to use technologies to address their bottom-line issues, such as increasing enrolment, improving student retention and allocating financial aid.  

As AI expands its reach into university practices, new concerns are raised about the tool’s threat to personal privacy. Colleges and universities are starting to catch up with other industries in utilizing AI. Many of them are using AI to help them progress on key outcomes such as increasing yield from applicants, preventing first-to-second-year attrition, targeting institutional financial aid and optimizing the solicitation of alumni donors.  

AI for recruitment 

Once an AI model sorts through the complexity of a large amount of data and detects previously hidden patterns, the focus needs to become ‘what do we do about it- in other words, who do we need to target, with what intervention and when. For instance, an institution wanted to increase the percentage of applicants who eventually matriculated at the university. So, it was spending a huge sum of money to purchase a student prospect list. However, the result was disappointing. Fewer than 10% of the applicants officially enrolled in the university. 

An AI company aided the university in much more precise targeting of students. It identified a subset of applicants based on their demographic characteristics, income level and family history. It then advised the university to make personal calls to those students along with the tailored financial aid offers. The preliminary results indicated that the university saw about a 15% increase in enrolment. 

Better with AI 

The colleges, however, are reluctant to acknowledge that they are using AI for purposes like these. Instead, they insist on remaining anonymous in press accounts. One way to protect individual privacy is to maintain all the data on the university rather than on a vendor’s servers.  

As significant as concerns about privacy and bias may be, colleges will inevitably increase their reliance on AI. AI is a powerful tool for higher education. Its applications will continue to grow, and with proper controls, it can be used to improve performance and promote student success.