We are down to the final weeks left to fully prepare students for entry into the AI-enhanced workplace. Are your students ready?
The truth is that the workplace is far different than that which we encountered even last year. There is a new “alpha” teammate in the office. That co-worker goes by its initials, “AI.” And, it out-produces all the rest of the team by working 24 hours a day, 7 days a week without coffee or bathroom breaks. On the more positive side, “AI” is there around the clock to pitch in on brainstorming, writing, formatting, publishing and all the other tasks that are necessary for a smooth-running office. It completes continuing and recurring tasks, mentors staffers, and is a ready resource for up-to-the-minute information.
The urgent task facing those of us who teach and advise students, whether they be degree-program or certificate-seeking, is to ensure that they are prepared to enter (or re-enter) the workplace with skills and knowledge that are relevant to 2025 and beyond. One of the first skills to cultivate is an understanding of what kinds of services this emerging technology can provide to enhance the worker’s productivity and value to the institution or corporation. In my case, that begins with an “Ask AI First” motto. Too often, I have found over the years that in beginning a work assignment, whether it be writing an article or preparing a report, my opening premise may not be on target. So, to begin this article, the first step I took was to check with AI. In a personalized and warm note, Chat GPT 4.o responded to my inquiry. As you can see in the link, the app responded in seconds with some preliminary points with citations to get me started. In this preliminary request, I started with GPT 4.0, known for its speech and accuracy. If I felt I needed additional deeper research with nuances and chain-of-thought reasoning, I would then progress to using one of the more than half a dozen “deep research” tools that are now available at little or no charge to the public.
In this instance, however, I felt well-enough versed to move to traditional sources to complete my research for this article. To the point, the focus is how can we integrate information into the final two months of classes that will help prepare our students for working with AI as they enter the workplace.
Given that short period of time, coupled with the need to cover the scheduled information in the syllabus, I recommend that we consider merging AI use into authentic assignments and assessments, supplementary modules, and other resources to prepare for AI. A most useful strategy is to recommend that students include examples of their work with AI in a supplementary section of their portfolio of projects (if they have one) or in a new online portfolio. Many no-or-low-cost portfolio options are available if you don’t provide one.
Don’t fall into the trap of assuming that most or all graduates need to code or configure AI on the job. Instead, their role will be to understand and most effectively use a well-developed AI system provided by the employer. It’s the equivalent of expertise in driving a car, rather than building or repairing one. Yet, there are key skills that HR departments will be looking for in applications. As Althea Storm writes in HubSpot, here are some of the top skills:
- Intellectual Curiosity
- Adaptability
- Objectivity
- Holistic Understanding
- Ability to Write Good Prompts
In general, those are qualities we all reinforce through the delivery of our course materials. It is standard practice to support these skills. It is important that we show students how these skills relate to their use of AI in the workplace.
Of course, just like humans, AI is more skilled at certain skills than others. These point to the areas where humans may direct AI to place a finer focus. For example, Storm suggests that AI doesn’t always fully measure up to humans in these areas:
- Critical Thinking – filling in gaps in logic and incomplete contextual understanding of situations
- Empathy – utilizing your interpersonal experience for how to best understand and respond to human feelings such as love, pain, anxiety and fear.
- Emotional Intelligence – of which empathy is a part. This is most helpful in bridging communication between humans and computers.
- People management – this includes identifying the varying potential of individual staff members to lead, work under pressure, and inspire the team.
- Creativity – consistently identifying outside-the-box solutions that provide superior outcomes to more obvious alternatives
- Strategic thinking – consistently linking all problem-solving to a broader strategy rather than the immediate problem at hand
Some faculty and administrators are surprised that the key skills and abilities needed to thrive in an AI-enhanced workplace are not truly technical in nature. The skills do require a basic understanding of the capabilities and limitations of the version of Artificial Intelligence in use. Yet, at their heart, the skills currently sought in AI-enabled offices are mostly interpersonal, leadership, empathic, and creative skills. Certainly, content understanding is necessary, but far less important is a deep understanding of how the AI works. We have reached that level of sophistication that we need to know how to deftly drive the car, not build the car.
How, then, can you enhance your students’ skills and abilities to successfully land a position in an AI-enhanced workplace in the last two months of the term? Can you modify some assignments to include cultivation, or at least understanding, of the “soft” skills needed now in the workplace? Perhaps, you might invite a HR officer from a business that uses AI to speak to your class about needs and expectations that are unique to the AI-enhanced workplace. Perhaps, there are some role-playing examples that can be conducted online or in person to assist your graduating students in preparation for applications and interviews in the contemporary workplace in your field. Your students’ careers may depend upon what you can impart in these last few weeks.
Higher education institutions are navigating a rapidly evolving search landscape.
With so many prospective students turning to search engines to explore programs and make enrollment decisions, universities must ensure their SEO strategies keep pace with these changes.
Without a clear SEO strategy, institutions risk losing visibility.
According to the Higher Ed SEO Research Study developed by Search Influence and UPCEA, 51% of universities lack an established SEO plan.
Universities that commit to creating a precise SEO strategy can improve rankings, connect with students where they’re searching, and drive more inquiries.
While a full-scale SEO strategy may seem overwhelming, there are practical, bite-sized steps institutions can take to make an immediate impact.
Follow along as we break down the latest higher education SEO trends and share essential strategies to help your university boost search visibility and attract more students.
How AI Overviews Are Changing Search Visibility
What’s happening?
Google’s AI Overviews are changing how information appears in search results.
These AI-generated responses provide quick summaries at the top of the page, often pushing traditional search results lower.
One major challenge is that AI Overviews pull information from multiple sources without clear attribution.
While this shift can reduce organic traffic to university websites, institutions featured in AI Overviews still have an opportunity to capture visibility and clicks.
How to adapt
Higher education institutions can maintain visibility by optimizing content for AI-driven search results.
Here’s how:
- Write detailed content: AI Overview responses typically only scratch the surface, but users still need deeper insights. Ensure your content is comprehensive and encourages users to click through for more information.
- Target long-tail keywords: AI-generated summaries tend to cover broad topics. Focusing on niche, specific queries — such as detailed program descriptions or unique campus experiences — can help universities capture traffic AI Overviews don’t fully address.
- Use clear, concise language: Google favors content that is easy to process. Short, direct statements with a conversational tone increase the chances of being featured in AI Overviews.
- Leverage interactive and multimedia content: AI can’t replicate human engagement. Webinars, downloadable resources, and interactive tools provide added value that keeps prospective students engaged beyond a quick search.
How this works in practice
University X offers a Bachelor of Science in Sustainable Urban Planning. They notice a drop in organic traffic as Google’s AI Overview now answers general queries at the top of search results, pushing their page lower.
To regain visibility, their marketing team takes action by:
- Enhancing content with faculty insights and graduate success stories to increase its chances of being featured.
- Targeting long-tail keywords like “best universities for sustainable urban planning with study abroad options” to increase the likelihood of showing up as a source for such niche content.
- Using clear, direct statements that align with AI’s preferred format — concise summaries followed by deeper insights.
- Creating an interactive comparison tool that provides unique value AI Overviews can’t replicate.
The Rise of Social Search: Why Google Isn’t the Only Search Engine That Matters
What’s happening?
Today’s students aren’t just searching for universities on Google — they’re turning to TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube to research programs, campus life, and student experiences.
This trend is called social search.
Social media platforms have become search engines in their own right, with user-generated content, influencer recommendations, and peer reviews shaping how many prospective students — Gen Z and Millennials especially — make decisions. AI summaries even appear at the top of search results on some platforms, including TikTok and Instagram, as of the time of writing.
Social content now ranks in Google search results as well. This means that universities with a strong social media presence can improve their visibility on these platforms and also in traditional search rankings.
How to adapt
To succeed in social search, universities must create engaging content that prompts prospective students to engage and is optimized to rank on traditional and social SERPs.
Here’s how:
- Repurpose website content into social-friendly formats: Turn key information — program highlights, admissions tips, and campus events — into short videos, infographics, and student testimonials that are easy to consume on social platforms.
- Prioritize engagement-driven content: Social algorithms favor posts that get likes, shares, and comments. Encouraging interaction through Q&A sessions, polls, and behind-the-scenes videos can boost visibility.
- Use student-generated content: Authenticity matters. Prospective students trust real experiences over polished marketing materials. Featuring student ambassadors or alumni sharing their stories can build credibility and engagement.
- Optimize for search within social platforms: Use relevant hashtags, keywords, and video captions that align with what students are searching for on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube.
How this works in practice
University X wants to attract more applicants to its environmental science program.
Traditionally, they focused on blog content and program pages, but applications weren’t increasing. Upon reviewing their analytics, they noticed students were finding information about environmental science programs through TikTok and YouTube more than Google.
To improve visibility, the marketing team:
- Creates a TikTok series featuring current students discussing field research projects, internship opportunities, and study abroad experiences.
- Repurposes faculty Q&A sessions into short Instagram Reels addressing common questions about the program.
- Encourages student ambassadors to share their experiences through “day in the life” YouTube vlogs, boosting authenticity.
- Optimizes their social content for search by using keywords like “best environmental science programs” and “top schools for sustainability” in post captions and video descriptions.
How to Rank in Google’s “People Also Ask” Section
What’s happening?
Google’s “People Also Ask” (PAA) feature provides quick, direct answers to commonly searched questions.
While PAA isn’t exactly a new Google feature, in the age of AI Overviews, targeting PAA can be a winning strategy for showing up on the SERPs while still retaining attribution.
When a prospective student searches “What GPA do you need to get into a top university?”, Google may display a dropdown of related questions like:
- What GPA is required for scholarships?
- Do universities look at weighted or unweighted GPAs?
- How can I improve my chances of getting into a competitive program?
Each question can be expanded to reveal a short snippet pulled from a website. While appearing in PAA increases a university’s visibility, it can also reduce click-through rates (CTR) if users find their answers without needing to visit the website.
Still, ranking in the PAA section is a valuable opportunity to position your university as a trusted resource in search results. Universities that structure their content correctly can boost visibility, improve credibility, and drive targeted traffic from prospective students searching for in-depth answers.
How to adapt
To increase your chances of ranking in the PAA section, universities should:
- Answer common student questions concisely: Provide clear, direct answers at the top of relevant pages, followed by detailed explanations to encourage deeper engagement.
- Use structured data: Implement FAQ schema and properly formatted headings (H2s and H3s) to help search engines recognize and extract answers.
- Focus on long-tail keywords: Students often search for specific, detailed queries rather than broad terms. Targeting niche topics like “best universities for biology majors with research opportunities” increases the chance of being featured in PAA.
- Organize content for searchability: Use bullet points, numbered lists, and structured formatting to improve readability and make it easier for Google to pull answers.
- Strengthen expertise and trustworthiness: Cite faculty insights, research, and statistics to establish credibility and improve the chances of ranking in AI-driven search features like PAA and AI Overviews.
How this works in practice
University X, a small liberal arts college, notices a decline in organic traffic due to the rise of AI Overviews. To adapt to this new era of search, they decide to target Google’s PAA section to answer searchers directly and with more detail than AI Overviews.
To address this, University X:
- Adds a dedicated FAQ section on key pages, providing direct, structured answers to common student questions.
- Uses long-tail keywords like “how to apply for a liberal arts degree” instead of just “liberal arts degree.”
- Formats content with bullet points and concise responses to match the PAA style.
- Implements FAQ schema to make it easier for Google to identify and feature their content in search results.
Proving Authority and Trustworthiness With E-E-A-T
What’s happening?
Google prioritizes websites that demonstrate Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness (E-E-A-T) — a crucial ranking factor for universities.
With AI Overviews pulling content from across the web, it’s more important than ever for institutions to showcase faculty expertise, accurate information, and authoritative research.
Universities that fail to establish E-E-A-T risk losing visibility in search results. Conversely, those that leverage expert-driven content, student success stories, and trusted partnerships can improve rankings and strengthen their reputation.
How to adapt
To enhance Google E-E-A-T and boost search rankings, universities should:
- Showcase faculty expertise: Publish blog posts, research summaries, and articles written by professors and subject matter experts. Include author bios with credentials to reinforce authority.
- Highlight real student experiences: Feature testimonials, success stories, and case studies that validate the university’s impact.
- Earn backlinks from reputable sources: Collaborate with research organizations, industry partners, and government institutions to gain citations and external references that strengthen domain authority.
- Ensure content is up to date: Regularly review and update academic program pages, admissions information, and faculty research to maintain accuracy and trustworthiness.
How this works in practice
University X, a mid-sized institution specializing in STEM programs, noticed their computer science program pages were losing rankings to larger universities with more established authority.
To improve visibility, they focused on enhancing their E-E-A-T by:
- Publishing faculty-authored blog posts discussing emerging trends in AI and cybersecurity, complete with professor bios and credentials.
- Featuring student case studies showcasing real-world projects, such as a group of students who developed an award-winning app.
- Partnering with tech companies to create guest blog content and research collaborations, earning backlinks from industry leaders.
- Optimizing faculty profiles with structured data, making it easier for Google to recognize and rank expert-driven content.
Learn More About the Latest Higher Ed SEO Trends
SEO isn’t just about rankings — it’s about making sure the right students discover your programs and take action. With the right strategy, your institution can increase visibility, attract prospective students, and stay on top of the latest trends.
I discussed this in depth during my presentation, “2025 Recruitment SEO Trends: Strategic Solutions to Emerging Challenges,” at this year’s Annual Conference in Denver.
Search Influence has years of experience helping higher ed institutions navigate SEO’s constant evolution.
Ready to learn how we can help yours?
Our SEO Workbook will help you get started.
Fill out the exercises in the workbook and walk away with at least three months of SEO techniques you can execute immediately to boost online visibility.
Our SEO Workbook is packed with actionable insights to help you build an effective SEO strategy to improve your university’s search visibility.
This workbook will help you:
- Understand how your website’s authority compares to competitors
- Develop a keyword strategy for top programs
- Create a content strategy for top programs
- Identify technical SEO improvements
- Spot opportunities for link-building
- Pinpoint accessibility updates
Download our SEO Workbook today to start developing a winning strategy.
Paula French is a Director at Search Influence, a leading digital marketing agency specializing in higher education. With over 15 years of experience crafting and leading digital marketing campaigns for major organizations, Paula has a proven track record of helping institutions like Tulane School of Professional Advancement effectively reach and engage their target audiences.
The 2024 UPCEA Staffing & Structure Survey examines the structure, staffing, enrollment, and financial operations of online and PCE units of 108 institutions of varying sizes and types. Public research institutions and large to medium-sized institutions dominate the sample, with online and PCE units often housed within the provost’s office or as standalone entities. Staffing levels range from small teams to larger units, supporting thousands of credit and non-credit enrollments annually. Financially, online and PCE units generate significant gross and net revenues, with budgets primarily allocated to staff salaries. Revenue-sharing models vary, with many units sharing a percentage of revenue with other departments. These insights reveal the critical role that online and PCE units play in providing flexible educational opportunities and driving institutional revenue.
- Forty-four percent of institutions have an online and PCE unit that resides in the provost’s office, 22% have a standalone unit, and 17% are nested within multiple academic units.
- Nearly a third (32%) of online and PCE units have under 10 FTE staff in their unit, while 27% have between 21 to 50. On average, online and PCE units have 43 FTE staff, with a median of 20.
- The average unduplicated headcount for credit enrollments is 5,539 and the average number of credit hours is 146,563. The average unduplicated headcount for non-credit enrollments is 3,340 and the average number of non-credit registrations is 7,653.
- On average, online and PCE units have a total gross revenue of $16.8M with a median of $6.0M and a total net revenue of $8.9M with a median of $1.0M.
- Fifty-nine percent of respondents said their online and PCE unit shares a percentage of revenue with other departments at their institution, while 12% share a flat fee, and 37% have “Other” revenue sharing agreements.
- Thirty percent of respondents have an online and PCE unit with an operating budget between $1M-$5M, while 23% have an operating budget under $1M. Online and PCE units have an average overall operating budget of $9.4M with a median of $2.8M.
- On average, online and PCE units allocate 61% of their budget to staff salaries with a median of 65% and an average of 27% to operational expenses with a median of 25%.
UPCEA is pleased to announce the release of a new brief, “Which OPM Contract Terms Should Concern Campus Leaders and Why?,” authored by Jeffrey C. Sun, J.D., Ph.D. and Heather A. Turner, Ph.D., and published jointly by the University of Louisville SKILLS Collaborative, Education Law Association, and UPCEA.
When deciding whether to partner with an online program manager (OPM), Chief Online Learning Officers (COLOs) have a lot to consider. This process usually starts with evaluating the university’s current online learning capabilities, followed by issuing a request for proposals (RFP) to gather options from different OPMs. At this stage, COLOs often focus on how well each company aligns with their university’s mission, identity, and values—a crucial factor highlighted in our previous research. Another important step is assessing the university’s own operations, which helps determine whether the institution can address its online learning needs in-house or if it truly requires external support to overcome capability and capacity challenges.
Ultimately, the success of the partnership often hinges on the details of the contracting process. The contract serves as the foundation upon which parties may build a productive relationship. With contracts, especially those involving external partnerships, clarity and foresight are essential, yet also difficult to anticipate. Our previous research about university agreements with OPMs reveal that contract terms and definitions dictate the extent to which the university may act in an agile and responsive manner when circumstances change.
In this brief, we present key contract terms that campus leaders should consider when contracting with OPMs. We focused on three major areas — finances, academics, and performance — based on COLO reports of contract terms that presented the most challenging areas to anticipate, negotiate, or frame. For each of these areas, we provide example contract terms that come from our review of 48 contracts between OPMs and universities across the US. For each set of terms, we offer one example that should be avoided (highlighted in red), one that is okay but could use some adjustments (in yellow), and one that is most beneficial to the university (in green). This brief should serve as a resource for any campus member involved in contracting with third-party vendors, as many of the terms have applicability to outsourcing beyond OPMs.
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The pressures to embrace online education aren’t equal across institutions, though. Those needing to retain or bulk up enrollment and those serving diverse, high-needs populations — community colleges and regional comprehensives, for example — are likely feeling more urgency to adapt, sources say. (Nearly 42 percent of the online-related jobs posted by public two-year colleges in the last eight years were placed in 2023 and 2024 alone.)
On the whole, state flagships and highly selective institutions “don’t have the same pressures … simply because when you are in that rare air, you will always have a huge recruiting class,” says Julie Uranis, senior vice president for online and strategic initiatives at UPCEA.”
Systems are the processes, people, and technology that make your university run on a day-to-day basis. There are a thousand of them that make up your infrastructure, from recruiting and enrollment to learning design and continuing education. It’s these systems that dictate the experiences your students, staff, and faculty have within your university. As such, they can be the key to your success or the lynchpin that keeps you stuck in the past. Thus, understanding where and when your systems are blocked and how they impact your strategies is critical to building a successful future.
One of the most common fallacies that university leaders believe is that their systems are limited to the features of their technology tools. They get stuck on what the tool provides instead of focusing on the experience they want their users to have. When, in fact, technology is a tool by which you create engaging experiences for your students, staff, and faculty. When you limit yourself to what features your technology offers, you also limit your ability to ideate and implement strategies to improve student experiences, increase bottom-line growth, and transform the way your university operates.
While technology shouldn’t be a blocker to innovation, you can’t unlock successful strategies if you don’t have the right systems in place to support them.
Building the Basic System Structure with Data
To truly transform student and alumni experiences, institutions must first ensure they understand if their foundational systems are built to meet their needs. Having the right information is critical to assessing if your systems accelerate your growth. This is where Noodle’s Hierarchy of Data Needs comes in. Before you can run with the latest cutting-edge technology, you need a thoughtful, intentional approach to building your systems and injecting technology tools into those systems.
We can break this hierarchy down into three key phases:
1. Building Your Foundation
That starts with your ability to access historical data and understand how your university got to where it is today. That means having a secure data management foundation for collecting, storing, and analyzing data and behavior from students, staff, and faculty. Only once you have this data management foundation in place, can you forecast and identify trends specific to your institution.
2. Forecasting Institutional Trends
Third party organizations push out industry trend reports and forecasts every year. And, while helpful for understanding macro market changes, they aren’t always relevant to your university or your students’ needs. Creating trend forecasts for your institution both over time and against peer institutions lets you dig into the minutiae of how your students respond to recruitment messages, the blockers that limit student retention, and how engaged your alumni are with your university long after they graduate. If the devil is in the details, your next big idea is in these insights.
3. Responding in Real-Time
Forecasting helps you develop strategies, but how do you know they’re working in today’s environment? Real-time data-driven insights are a window into the lived experiences of your students, staff, and faculty and how they navigate your university systems. They help you pinpoint and resolve system blockers as they appear, implement cutting-edge technology that actually improves experiences, and rapidly adjust your strategies in the face of changing circumstances.
It’s these insights about your institution, your faculty, and your students that drive transformative and realistic strategy. Too many university leaders get caught up in the latest and greatest technology tools without first understanding what systems they already have in place, how those systems interact with one another, and how each new technology tool complements existing infrastructure.
Applying the Hierarchy of Data Needs to Continuing Education
Continuing education is a powerful way to engage alumni, drive lifelong learning, and strengthen university revenue streams—but only if you have the right systems in place. For example, many institutions struggle to track alumni engagement, predict who will return for further education, and adapt to changing workforce needs.
By applying Noodle’s Hierarchy of Data Needs, universities can transform scattered alumni data into actionable insights, allowing them to personalize outreach and expand continuing education programs.
1. Understanding Your Alumni
In the first phase of Noodle’s Hierarchy of Data Needs, the goal is to ensure your university maintains a centralized alumni data repository and a process for capturing the right kinds of information from students and alumni. The smallest detail can provide insights to transform your current students into engaged alumni post-graduation.
Can you answer these questions about your alumni:
- What’s their current contact information?
- What programs did they follow or courses did they take?
- What degrees (if any) did they achieve?
- Have they engaged with alumni marketing materials in the past? If so, which ones did they respond to?
- Are alumni participating in annual giving campaigns?
- Where are they working?
If you can’t answer these questions, you should focus on building a strong data management solution before trying to implement any additional systems or tools. You should also evaluate the kinds of information you need to make informed decisions about alumni personalization strategies, non-credential learning programs, and other continuing education strategies.
2. Predicting Which Students Become Lifelong Learners and Donors
Once you have a large enough database of alumni information, you can uncover trends within your community and overlay historic industry data to help you better predict which students might come back for continuing education courses after they’ve entered the professional world.
What kinds of markers should you be looking for:
- Are alumni receptive to marketing materials from your institution?
- Are there degree programs or certifications that consistently need continuing education?
- Were engaged alumni actively engaged with school-sanctioned organizations?
- Are alumni enrolled in recruitment for their employers?
- Are alumni updating their profile data regularly on your systems?
In the second phase of Noodle’s Hierarchy of Data Needs, you’re able to use the information you have on hand to identify trends that lead to specific outcomes. Once you’ve identified these markers, you can implement targeted engagement strategies like personalized communications or early exposure to graduate-level coursework. You can also get an idea of how different alumni groups will respond to specific continuing education messaging.
3. Responding to Changing Alumni Needs
From the outset, universities should be instilling the value of lifelong learning into every student who passes through their programs. Every industry and profession is growing and innovating (some faster than others), and professionals need to know how to keep their skills sharp. With industry-aligned data, you can proactively prompt alumni to pursue professional skill development and continuing education with targeted campaigns aimed at reinforcing your university’s brand and reminding alumni why they chose your institution for their undergrad and graduate programs. It is also a powerful mechanism to understand if the programs you are offering align with broader industry needs.
Data helps you build deeper connections with alumni and leverage personalized or triggered recruitment strategies like:
- Programs to help alumni upskill in emerging tech languages and advancements in science.
- Support for adapting to new federally mandated regulations and industry changes.
- Programs offering CEUs for alumni to maintain licensure with the latest best practices and skills
- Programs enabling alumni to bring their knowledge into the classroom
- On-site corporate training programs for organizations with a large alumni base
These hierarchical phases build upon one another. You can’t market continuing education certifications about advancements in science to alumni if you don’t know how to contact them or when they completed their programs at your university. But once you unblock your systems and are able to identify trends within your databases, you can unlock exponential opportunities to target alumni for additional course offerings.
Are your systems blocking your institution’s growth? Join us at UPCEA 2025 to explore how unblocking them can unlock new opportunities for enrollment, retention, and lifelong learning.
Regina Law is Noodle’s Vice President of Partnership Development for Technology Solutions. Noodle is the leading tech-enabled strategy and services partner for higher education. A certified B corporation, Noodle (founded in 2013) has developed infrastructure and online enrollment growth for some of the best academic institutions in the world. Noodle empowers universities to transform the world through life-changing learning. It offers strategic consulting to advise partners as they navigate their futures, provides services tailored to meet their growth aspirations, and deploys technology, tools, and platforms that integrate for scale, making our partners more resilient, responsive, efficient, and interconnected.
We have entered an era of greater scrutiny and fewer resources in higher education. How might AI enable the deans to become more effective and efficient in administering the college?
The challenges are proliferating while funding is deteriorating. Fortunately, the AI options to accomplish more with less funding are expanding. As of the end of February, a number of awe-inspiring “deep research” tools have been released. More than half a dozen such tools are available from different providers at prices ranging from no cost to $200 a month. They are becoming the key to enhancing efficiency and effectiveness of administrators, including deans. Omar Santos, distinguished Cisco engineer, published on February 21, 2025 “A Comparison of Deep Research AI Agents” where he outlines some of the features of the five leading brands as of that date, noting, that “unlike simple question-answering bots, these agents perform multi-step reasoning: formulating search queries, browsing web content, analyzing data, and synthesizing findings into structured outputs with citations.” Santos goes on to describe that there are two primary architectural approaches to deep research agents:
Fully Autonomous Agents: Once given a prompt or topic, these agents operate independently end-to-end. For example, OpenAI’s Deep Research feature (launched in Feb 2025) allows ChatGPT to act like a “research analyst”, working for several minutes without intervention to gather information from the web and compile a report with sources. It is powered by a specialized version of OpenAI’s upcoming o3 model optimized for reasoning and web browsing. The user simply provides the topic, answers a few additional questions, and the agent handles the rest autonomously. This fully-automated approach is convenient but requires a very robust agent to decide on research directions and verify information on its own.
Human-in-the-Loop (HITL) Agents: These agents incorporate human feedback or approval at different steps of the research workflow. Rather than running to completion unquestioned, the AI will pause for guidance — typically after formulating a research plan or outline — so the user can review and adjust it before the agent proceeds.
Santos compares and contrasts five different such tools, leading with the OpenAI and Google Gemini versions. I would add two more to the list. First is the outstanding “Storm” tool developed as a brainstorming device by the Open Virtual Assistant Lab (OVAL) at Stanford University. The other is the Grok 3 Beta recently released by X.ai. In all cases, these tools are capable of using advanced reasoning to develop research plan; searching the internet at large and other selected sites to which you provide access permissions; conducting probing research; composing a report with citations; revising the report and updating as directed. Increasingly, the tools are offering options to ensure they do not use your inputs for training. Each of these tools will, no doubt, revise and improve in the coming months as new competitors enter the field. I expect that university IT departments will assist deans and other administrators as they select, train and become proficient at using the tool best suited to their needs.
Here are ways these tools may assist deans in meeting the challenges of their positions this fall and moving forward.
Personal Assistant
- These very “smart” tools can manage calendars, set reminders, respond to routine correspondence and more. In these cases, initially deans may want to give individual approval of actions, but in time, just with an experienced assistant, they may want to enable auto-processing while keeping copies for follow-ups.
- One can share an email or notes of a conversation with any additional points that should be included in the response and ask the deep research tool to compose a response (including references it discovers that are relevant to the communication).
- The deep research tools can automatically schedule meetings and prepare agendas for items that either the dean or the tool may identify as emerging issues for the college.
College Research projects
- A continuing assignment may be to conduct a weekly search for new public and private funding of projects in which the faculty of the college have an interest.
- Strategies for reducing indirect costs of projects can be researched and a report shared with project managers, department chairs and faculty conducting research.
- Focused reports can be generated to propose extended funded research topics and opportunities in areas where the college faculty have conducted preliminary research.
- Emerging markets for products of research can be identified and letters of introduction to businesses who might value the research can be drafted and sent.
Curriculum Currency and Relevancy
- The Deep Research tool can compare the college’s published curriculum with those of peer institutions and others for timeliness, utility, and corporate demand.
- A dynamic comparison of the top ten competitor colleges’ curriculum and research agendas can be maintained with update alerts when a competitor makes changes. In such cases, the tool can automatically create a meeting of relevant faculty and staff, including an agenda with materials from the competition to focus the discussion.
- Deep Research can conduct predictive analyses of current curriculum, identifying courses that obstruct the smooth flow of students through the curriculum (once identified, the tool can set up an agenda with data handouts to discuss the problem and suggest solutions). In such studies learning outcome effectiveness can be assessed, percentage and time to employment of graduates or certificate completers, and retention of graduates by employers can be analyzed.
Meeting and Leading the Competition
- Deep Research is the ideal tool to identify new domestic and international markets for enrollments.
- Professional certificates can be designed by the tool to meet emerging needs in the field. These can be matched to faculty backgrounds for potential staffing.
- Deep Research can do an analysis of faculty workloads; identify those who may need more support and those may be available for more activities; and make recommendations to the dean and department chairs.
Analyzing and Assessing Productivity and Currency of Unit Work
- Deep Research tools are able to extrapolate on the work of current projects and compare their objectives to emerging markets, technologies, and societal needs. Sharing such reports with the relevant units as well as preparing the agenda for discussion, keeping minutes of the meeting, and codifying outcomes can all be accomplished with AI tools.
- Full annual reviews and analysis of revenue generated, students enrolled, outcomes accomplished, and other such data can be accomplished by Deep Research. These can help to guide strategic planning.
These are just a few of the important tasks of the dean that can be assisted by Deep Research tools. There are many more tasks that can be tackled by these tools. I hope that this brief list will prompt readers to become comfortable with the range of work that can be done in order to identify their own tasks for which they could use assistance.
Is your university preparing to implement these tools in support of deans and other administrators? Has training begun? It is important that your institution gets started so that you will not rapidly fall behind your peers in utilizing advanced Ai tools to enhance effectiveness and efficiency.
This article was originally published in Inside Higher Ed.