I was genuinely astonished by how natural and lifelike it was.
What drew you to AskEd and being part of the Advisory Council?
I genuinely believe that the product you’ve developed has real potential to be game changing. There are so many exciting developments in the AI space right now, but with AskEd you’ve got that magic combination of founders who know and understand the sector, using new tech to solve real problems in a beautifully simple way. It’s genius! Plus, with such a focus on increasing revenue and cutting costs across the sector, this couldn’t have come at a better time.
What did you think of the platform when you first tried it?
I was genuinely astonished by how natural and lifelike it was. It was very easy to converse with, and I found myself building a rapport with it, just as if I were talking to a real person. Even though I threw it some challenging questions, it remained calm, collected, and, most importantly, accurate. Plus, and for me this is really important, it recognised its own limitations and didn’t try to make things up when it didn’t know the answer.
Student recruitment is becoming increasingly competitive. Where do you think universities need to rethink their approach if they want to remain competitive over the next 5 years?
Innovation will be key. Not just in the programmes on offer, but in how universities reach, communicate with, and capture their customers. Drivers for going to university are changing, with a much greater focus on return on investment. On top of this, AI is changing how students search, engage, and apply to university.
To stay relevant, institutions need to meet their potential customers where they are, provide them with products relevant to their future career prospects, and, crucially, be tech-first to meet the expectations of future generations.
We talk a lot about the student journey, but where do you think the biggest points of friction still exist between a prospective student showing interest and actually applying.
As a sector, we are still really good at putting up barriers for prospective students, even if we like to think otherwise. Most universities have a wide range of programmes on offer but offer limited help to prospective students in actually choosing the best fit.
We can be very product-based in our approach, but in reality, prospective students may be more goal-oriented or outcomes-driven. We leave it to them to dig through all the options on offer, often in a foreign language, to find something that they think looks right.
Moreover, most teams operate on a UK-centric 9-5, which is a big barrier and source of friction if you live in a time zone that is several hours ahead or behind.
Voice AI is developing incredibly quickly. What makes voice fundamentally different from other channels?
It’s natural. And this makes it significantly more engaging. Chatbots and emails can feel very sterile, but voice can add in the human touch, even when you may not be talking to an actual human. It’s far easier to express nuance and emotion verbally.
How significant is the ability for a prospective student to have a natural conversation with an institution, instantly and in their own language.
I think it’s a game changer. It removes several of the barriers I mentioned earlier and allows the prospective learner to engage on their terms and at their convenience. Why should they stay awake until 2am and struggle to hold a conversation in English? If that sounds unreasonable, it’s probably because it is!
How should universities think about the balance between AI and human interaction?
Firstly, I think people can get unnecessarily uptight about this. We all engage with AI, all the time, even without realising it. Amazon, Netflix, your smart speaker. All AI. More and more help centres are now AI-supported. And this is simply what consumers, including potential students, expect. Does that mean there is not a role for humans? Absolutely not. People don’t want AI making the decision as to whether they can study or not. That wouldn’t be right. But I think they’re quite comfortable with it helping with a lot of the leg-work to get to that point, especially if it makes their lives easier.
There is understandably a lot of discussion about the risks of AI in education. What does responsible adoption look like?
AI as a tool to help drive efficiency, reduce friction, and provide an enhanced service is all great. But we still have to remember that universities are places of learning and critical thinking.
The learners of tomorrow are going to be increasingly AI-native, so our job as educators is to try and balance these new skills with the traditional educational skills, so that our graduates are still able to think and assess independently.
Could there come a point where having an AI recruitment agent available by phone, WhatsApp, and web is simply expected by students rather than seen as innovative?
Yes! And it’s not far away.
Fast-forward to 2030: how different do you think a prospective student’s first conversation with a university will be from today?
By 2030, AI will be the norm for those initial conversations. Prospective students will be able to tell us what drives and interests them, what their career plans are, and receive tailor-made recommendations for a course of study, potentially even with an indicative offer within seconds.