Technology in Context

Current and Future Growth

In 2019, there were 2,649 startups related to Artificial Intelligence. It’s estimated that the growth in AI in the United States over the next 2–5 years will be around 18%. Chatbot market revenue alone is forecasted to surpass $450 million by 2027. (Mehta, et al., 2020)

In a recent study, Deloitte found that 62 percent of companies surveyed are actively using automation to eliminate transactional work and replace repetitive tasks; 47 percent are augmenting existing work practices to improve productivity; and 36 percent are “reimagining work.”

Computers and automated machine processes are replacing humans when it comes to the execution of “routine” tasks, and yet humans are still necessary. Jobs are evolving to require a new, more complex set of skills and capabilities.

Even with the advancement of AI, there are skills at which humans will be particularly adept far into the future (Schwartz, et al., 2019)

Growth Opportunities

No industry is immune to the advantages that AI can bring to the table — higher education included. AI will impact the future of education. Educators, professionals and everyone involved, can and will benefit from all that AI has to offer. “AI in Education (AIEd) is an emerging field within educational technology”.(Zawacki-Richter, et al., 2019)

Specifically, utilizing a AI chatbot can lead to benefits such as reducing student melt, increase attendance, increase new student orientation attendance, and completing required forms. (Blackburn, 2020)

There are also opportunities to automate some tasks such as application deadline reminders, current student questions, etc.

“Over the last few years, deep learning has made vast improvements in enabling machines to comprehend the physical world to a certain degree. Historically, AI-powered computers have been able to perform only those tasks for which they were explicitly programmed. Even though this has worked well to make large calculations and achieve such feats as beating professionals at games like poker, chess, and Go, it has come up short when performing human-like tasks such as recognizing faces or answering novel questions.” (Mehta, et al., 2020)

While there is a lot of potential, ability to automate varies across industries. For an industries such as educational services, it’s estimated that 34% of work/tasks could be automated. Factors such as openness to change, cost of developing new technologies, labor market dynamics, the regulatory framework, and economic benefits all impact an industries automation potential. (Mehta, et al., 2020)

Potential Impact and Needs

With reduced staff in both admissions and student support, a chatbot has the potential to be a big time saver.

Chatbots are helping students receive important information in a really accessible way without them having to repeat what they need for the millionth time to staff.

To implement successfully, time and expertise is needed to train the chatbot. It’s estimated that every question could be asked 196 different ways. (Blackburn, 2020)

To prepare for AI implantation, consider these five 5 best Practices

• Begin with Data — know your why.
• Define Narrow SMART use cases — be specific.
• Get a machine on your team — consider the AI chatbot one of the team members.
• Get talent — understand that it takes talented team members to successfully implement.
• Do good with the data — be careful with how you use data collected through the tool.

Another key consideration for success is buy in. it sounds easy and simple, but the idea of computers doing what humans have always done is disconcerting for some, and there needs to be substantial buy in from users on both sides in order for this to work properly and effectively. (Lowendahl, et al., 2020)