Student success teams are already using AI on a daily basis. Here’s what institutions need to know

Within a few months of their launch, new AI tools like ChatGPT have quickly transitioned from a curiosity to essential parts of our daily lives. Many of us may have already dabbled with AI tools for help with tasks at work and beyond—from writing better emails to assembling travel itineraries. This is only the start of the promise that AI holds across all industries, including higher education.

To date, much of the chatter around AI in higher education has focused on academics – how can students use AI ethically in the classroom? What AI skills will students need in their professions? What does AI mean for academic integrity? All of these are important questions, but less focus has been put on how student success professionals are using AI.

EAB set out to understand more about how student success teams are using AI in their day-to-day roles so leadership can develop stronger AI strategies. Our team surveyed student success professionals to understand a) how they are currently using AI in their roles, b) what they need from their leadership to feel better about using AI, and c) where they think AI holds the most promise.

Read on to see the four key insights from our survey.

Read the full insight paper here

Insight 1: Adoption is outpacing coordination

Student success staff are enthusiastically integrating AI into their roles, with 69% of survey respondents using AI in their work over the past year. Over half of respondents have used AI in the past month, and a quarter are using it weekly. They’ve harnessed AI for creating student communications, speeding up response times, and even aiding students in career planning.

However, this innovative spirit is often self-driven, as institutions rarely promote AI exploration or share insights on its use. Sixty percent of respondents said their institutions never collect information on how AI is being used, and half reported that their institutions never encourage teams to share their AI learning experiences with peers. Consequently, there are limited opportunities for staff to exchange new ideas or success stories, limiting the ability to scale successful AI strategies.

Recommendations: Centralize your AI best practices

• Develop a cross-functional working team that collects best practices and AI strategies that are being used across the institution.
• Create an intuitive system for submitting strategies, practices, prompts, and use cases.
• Emphasize that strategies are being collected so they can be replicated, as opposed to AI usage being monitored for punitive reasons.

Do you have an AI prompt you’d like to share? Tell us about it here.

Insight 2: Staff want to learn about AI through collaboration with their peers

The fact that AI usage is outpacing institutional response becomes even more alarming given that success teams want to learn about AI from their peers, which requires intentional coordination from institutional leadership. When asked what they needed to feel more comfortable using AI time to experiment and examples from their colleagues topped the list. As one respondent shared: “I just need time to learn it. Many of us are overworked, and it requires careful consideration.”

It’s also important that over a third of respondents are open to learning about AI from experts outside of the college. EAB’s Strategic Advisory Services team offers AI Strategy support, equipping cabinet members with essential knowledge about AI and its implications for higher education. This service helps institutions understand and leverage AI’s transformative opportunities while mitigating associated risks.

Recommendations: Develop AI collaboration spaces

• Create dedicated time for AI professional development that covers ethics and use cases
  and highlights promising practices.
• Promote peer-to-peer “show and tell” where success staff can share strategies that have worked for them.
• Develop sandbox trainings that allow teams to experiment with AI in a controlled, supported environment.

Insight 3: Concern is shifting to how to do AI “right”

Just last year, there were widespread fears that AI would eliminate jobs. However, respondents are more worried about the potential harm AI could cause to students than about job security or training costs. In fact, only 13% are concerned about losing their jobs, while 18% are worried that AI will negatively impact the nature of student success work.

What teams were concerned about was how errors in AI could impact students, and potential biases in AI. Some of these fears might be rooted in the fact that so many institutions haven’t taken a position on AI and provided space for people to ask questions about AI security.

This shift in priorities suggests that institutions may have more AI supporters or curious observers than detractors. Concern about AI’s impact on students indicates that people are starting to accept AI as part of their future, rather than viewing it as a personal threat.

Recommendation: Define and address AI risks

• Openly address lingering success staff concerns about AI risks and how to use AI ethically.
• Develop examples of tested AI use cases to serve as entry points for cautious success staff.
• Engage your IT security experts in the creation of best practices and guidelines.

Watch our webinar: AI and the future of higher ed.

Insight 4: AI can make student success jobs easier

Anyone who has worked in student success knows how much time teams spend on manual and repetitive tasks, which takes away from providing one-on-one support to students who need it most. These high-volume tasks can lead to staff burnout and even cause people to leave their jobs. When asked, student success professionals identified high-volume tasks as areas where AI could ease their workload, potentially freeing up their time for more meaningful work.

Respondents also noted that using AI to keep students on track academically—by identifying those who need support and offering intelligent nudges towards personalized milestones—would make their jobs easier. Both of these uses aim to deliver interventions more quickly to the students who need them most, which could, in the long run, reduce the time spent trying to pull students back on track.

Recommendation: Make AI a strategic priority

• Invest in AI technologies that can reduce the time spent on repetitive, high-volume tasks like running reports and answering student inquiries.
• Promote internal AI literacy as an institutional priority to affirm your alignment with success teams who are already using AI routinely.
• Track the impact of AI best practices on efficiency and job satisfaction.

Moving from caution to curiosity

AI is here to stay, and the good news for institutions is that success staff largely recognize the value of AI, both for themselves and for students. As you develop your AI strategy, EAB is here to help with strategic advisory services to guide your team on AI best practices. Additionally, Navigate360 offers AI-enabled reporting, messaging, and chatbot tools, and more. To connect with an EAB expert, fill out the form below.