Between navigating the availability of courses and professors and helping students align their academic objectives with extracurriculars, advisors at the University of California at Riverside work hard to make sure that each student gets the individualized attention they deserve. But collecting all the pieces of information is time-consuming, and the number of students who need support increases incessantly. 

“So, we’re building an AI service that helps answer those questions for the advisors,” said Matthew Gunkel, Chief Information Officer at UC-Riverside.

Throughout higher ed, artificial intelligence is gradually playing a more active role to support operations. While some colleges are in the nascent stages of considering what AI can look like on campus, at other universities — like San Jose State University — personnel from executive leadership to student affairs are actively exploring AI use cases inside and outside of the classroom.