How AI Is Revolutionizing College Searches and What We Can Do About It

For many years, the College of Charleston Office of University Communications has used various software programs to monitor where and in what context our university is being mentioned in news outlets and on social media. These platforms are constantly crawling the vast universe of digital, print, television and radio content for any mention of our school, our people and our academic programs. Tracking our brand online is a critical part of monitoring, managing and elevating the College’s reputation.

But now there’s a new player. The rise of generative artificial intelligence has added an entirely new realm of digital content in the form of responses to user-generated prompts. If you have used any of the major AI platforms, you know how easy it is to explore in limitless detail any topic imaginable. Instead of the now-quaint Google search (remember those days?), we now have access to a tool that not only spits out simple answers and hyperlinks, but can contextualize, summarize, create content and break down highly complex topics – all in a matter of seconds.

Consider what this means for a university like ours that exists within an increasingly competitive higher education marketplace where the pool of college-bound students continues to decline as part of the so-called demographic cliff.

Learning From College Searches

Today, a prospective student or parent is just as likely to use AI to research colleges as they are a search engine. They may simply ask, “Tell me about the College of Charleston?” Beyond providing the basics – our location, history, academic offerings, price and rankings – AI can also provide advice, guidance and recommendations to users. And it will gather and synthesize this information from a wide range of sources that may or may not be entirely accurate. Ideally, the platform will cull information from reputable and fact-checked sources such as the College’s own website. But it might also gather input from college search sites, online reviews, social media posts and blogs. AI will provide information about our school that prospective families may use to make a major life decision about which college or university is the best fit for them.

And it’s not only students and families using AI to learn more about the College. Prospective and current employees, donors, legislators, journalists, competitors and others are also using these platforms to learn more about us. But what are they learning, and is it correct?

Responding by Listening

In collaboration with the divisions of Enrollment Planning and Academic Affairs, our communications team has begun using a new software tool that “listens” to what AI is saying about the College and how it’s saying it. Thus, in addition to the news and social listening we’ve done for years, we are now listening to AI, as well. Using emerging software that scans all major AI platforms, we’re now able to monitor our reputation across this expansive new and ever-expanding universe of information.

We are in the process of developing and feeding this system prompts that someone researching universities might enter. In the weeks and months ahead, we will track the responses to these prompts and take appropriate action based on what we learn. For example, if AI is providing details about one of our academic programs and describing it in a way that does not represent reality, our staff can take steps to essentially train AI so that it is responding with the most accurate and up-to-date information. This could mean updating or adjusting content on our website or crafting stories and social media posts that talk about our university in the way we want to be perceived. One key benefit is that we can track the responses to these prompts over time and gauge how our remediation efforts are working.

Getting to the Truth

It’s easier than ever for prospective families to do their due diligence when evaluating higher education institutions. The challenge is that, in using AI as part of their research, they may be given misleading or incorrect information – and, worse, use that information to inform their decision-making without ever clicking on a single hyperlink or verifying the sources of AI’s responses. They may simply read what’s on the screen, form an impression and move on to their next query.

So, you can see why it’s more important than ever that the College be aware of how AI is talking about us. Scanning human-generated content to ensure accuracy remains an important part of our work in promoting and protecting our university’s brand. But at the same time, we must keep pace with technology and go to the same places that our students and their families are going. And we must do all we can to ensure that the information they’re getting is the truth.