Voice AI could become the front door to student recruitment

Congratulations on joining AskEd's Advisory Council. What attracted you to the company and its vision?

Well honestly, I guess it started with a message coming my way, but rest assured there's loads that come my way and most don't get a follow up. The fact that Stefan and John had looked at something everybody in the sector, I think in truth, already knows and, to date, nobody has attempted to fix effectively, which is that potentially a significant slice of enquiries out of hours often don't ultimately go any further, not specifically through poor resourcing and administration but more that increasingly folks are looking for a degree of immediacy with their enquiries and the research they're doing on their next steps. I like it when people just come up with something that seems really quite obvious but at the same time also feels ahead of its time.

Student expectations have changed dramatically. What do today's applicants expect from schools that perhaps wasn't true even five years ago?

I'm very mindful we all have a different perspective but I would certainly hang my hat on the fact that five years ago the typical model was that a student requested a prospectus, came to an open day, waited for a response, and that would be wrapped around the typical institutional calendar. Nowadays, applicants, I think, have grown up with instant conversational, on-demand access to pretty much everything, and they now apply that same standard to something which, in essence, could be a £60,000 decision about their future. That sense of expecting an answer now on the device in their hand and something that's a bit more nuanced than a generic blurb is what's really shifting the opportunity.

I get the sense there's another shift that's happened as well: more young folks have already started the research without you. They're asking an AI assistant, whatever LLM that may be, which universities suit them before they even get to your website. If you can't hold a proper conversation at that point of first contact, you're not necessarily going to be competing on a level footing with others as time moves forward.

For fear of over-filling my page on feedback, I think we just need to also be mindful of accessibility. Whether it's the applicant who's dyslexic or the student that has English as a second language, there are some really important pathways by offering different ways for every learner to engage.

You're involved across schools, colleges, trusts and the wider EdTech ecosystem. Where do you think education is embracing AI well, and where is it still holding back?

There's lots of opportunity and also concerns, justifiable concerns, around AI. Often the areas of most success to date have been providing tools that support accessibility and inclusion, including speech-to-text, live translation, reading support, and all sorts of other bits and pieces. I would argue that is already changing outcomes for individual children but it's something that doesn't get a huge amount of press.

At the same time, it's probably having a more significant impact on workload, one of the key risk factors that most educational establishments are facing now. Not necessarily being measured in terms of progress and attainment but definitely being measured in terms of recruitment and retention. AI is being used to draft, adapt, and, where appropriate, differentiate resources to generate some time savings. Hopefully that time saving allows more of the human in the loop with their engagement with learners.

I think we still have a long way to go in terms of building our confidence around AI and assessment. There is already some really good work and evidence about positive impact, but I think the broader conversation is: How does that change the way that we assess whether that's summative or formative our learners' progress? How do we mitigate a perception of that cognitive offloading? How do we use tools that are purposeful but also evidence-informed and in the right way?

Perhaps not surprisingly, we see more AI being used to support specific learners and to help reduce workload and organisational activities than perhaps we do as much within the teaching and learning specific environment. I think just because we have concerns doesn't mean we don't move forward. In fact, I think doing nothing is the worst potential outcome. There's lots of work, lots of ability for schools, colleges, universities to move whilst building evidence base by making sure they've got the right overarching governance and doing things in a step-by-step and impactful, purposeful way.

As we always like to say with any technology, whatever it's based on, you start with the why: Why are we looking to add this tool? What problem are we trying to mitigate? How do we plan to measure it?

That's not a bad way to kick things off.

If you were advising a Vice-Chancellor today, what role would Voice AI play within their student recruitment strategy over the next few years?

That's a difficult one. I think probably, being simplistic, I'd say stop trying to think of this kind of tool as a bolt-on to your website and start thinking of it as your front door.  I suppose the most obvious date in the UK calendar within this context is clearing. Every August the proverbial phone lines melt. Students sit on hold for 20 minutes and a large number of them give up and potentially ring somewhere else. A voice agent that can answer at 7:00 AM, check requirements, work through grades and other queries, and either progress them or point them somewhere better has to be a marginal gain at the very least.

Perhaps beyond the clearing example I might give it three jobs: 1 - Get it to answer the first wave of questions that arrive for the organisation at any hour and in any language. 2 - Qualify and route the enquiries so the human team there spend their time on the conversations that actually need a human. 3 - Signpost honestly, including telling a student when a course just isn't right for them.

Looking ahead, what excites you most about AskEd and what impact do you hope it can have on education?

I think a very transparent answer is, first and foremost, it's the people. I like collaborating with people who I can see have got a real passion to make a difference. In the case of AskEd, I also see an advisory board with some really, really interesting and experienced folks, where I believe I can both share and learn in equal measures, and that's always refreshing. Alongside that it certainly helps if the solution is clearly there to mitigate a problem we all know exists and for that reason I am really excited to get under the skin and find out more.

Finally, what's one message you'd like to leave with education providers about the future of AI in student recruitment?

I think we just have to recognise the fact that the workplace and our students have already brought AI into the process. The question around AI and recruitment, I feel isn't whether it belongs in recruitment, it's whether the institution is going to be present in the conversation that's happening or choosing to be absent from it.

I know that might feel a little bit woolly but let's just think of it in the bigger picture. A prospective candidate can use AI tools to research information about different universities and colleges, and they can research the courses they might have an interest in, all with instant access to responses. They will arrive on your website with an expectation that their journey continue with an immediacy to the information they seek and the answers are provided. You make a conscious choice whether you want to continue by offering an immediacy and personalisation to the information and responses that you provide as an organisation at your front door or, you choose to not be part of that process and engage in a more traditional way at a time that works for you.

I think one of those journeys has far more potential for scale and growth as we look to the future.