What it taught us about trust, timing, and scaling admissions

"In a randomized controlled trial at Georgia State University, an AI assistant handled 200,000 messages from 3,100 students. Only 0.9% needed human help. The result? A 21.4% drop in summer melt and a 3.9% increase in enrollment."

Let’s be honest: in university admissions today, the bottleneck isn’t reach. It's a response.

You’re not struggling to get in front of students; you’re struggling to keep up with them.
Every week, admissions teams answer the same questions, juggle late-night inboxes, and try to identify which students are genuinely ready to take the next step.

This is where the traditional model breaks down.

Students aren’t waiting. They’re searching, browsing, and evaluating on their terms, not yours. And the moment something feels too hard, too slow, or too unclear?

They bounce.

Unless someone answers. Instantly.

Reverse Recruiting: When You Invite the Right Students to Apply

Some of the most forward-thinking universities we’ve worked with aren’t waiting for applications. They’re proactively inviting them.

This is reverse recruiting: flipping the funnel from passive to active.

Instead of reacting to whoever shows up, teams use behavioral signals and engagement data to identify high-fit students and personally invite them to continue. If someone spends 14 minutes exploring your Engineering faculty, downloads a scholarship checklist, and replays a Q&A session, that’s not a cold lead. That’s a student asking, “Is it safe to want this?”

With the right systems in place, your team moves from sorting applications to curating the next class - one qualified nudge at a time.

Why Students Trust AI More Than Humans (At First)

During one of our recent Open Days, an AI avatar trained on the university’s real admissions data handled 7× more student questions than the live Q&A team.

Not because it was smarter. But because it felt safer.

As Nobel laureate Daniel Kahneman might say: we act not when we’ve processed all the facts but when the action feels easy, low-risk, and avialible.

That’s what AI offers:

• No pressure

• No judgment

• No fear of asking the "wrong" question

• No waiting

This effect is particularly strong for first-gen students and students from non-traditional backgrounds, international applicants, or anyone less confident to speak up publicly. Research from the Institute for Creative Technologies confirms that people disclose more to virtual agents than human moderators when fear of judgment is removed.When trust is fragile, the ability to explore anonymously is powerful.

What Humans Still Do Best

This isn’t about replacing advisors. It’s about freeing them.

At institutions doing this well, the division of labor looks like this:

• AI handles the first 40–50%: logistics, deadlines, program info, checklists, FAQs

• Humans handle the final 50–60%: complex questions, decision-stage calls, emotional conversations

When implemented correctly, this results in:

• Fewer repetitive emails

• More qualified student bookings

• Higher engagement from nontraditional applicants

• A team that’s focused, not overwhelmed

As Chris Voss might say: Empathy starts with listening at scale. That’s what AI enables.

What AI Needs to Actually Work

You can’t just slap a chatbot on your site and expect trust.
You need to train it like a team member and maintain it like a strategic asset.

Here’s what we’ve seen work:

1. A real knowledge base including internal answers your team already uses (yes, even the email templates)

2. Contextual awareness so a law student in Lagos gets different answers than a parent in Lyon

3. Brand-aligned tone i.e. calm, helpful, human

4. Escalation paths to booking, email, or live follow-up

5. Feedback loops so every question improves the next cycle

6. Ongoing investment you'll need a few hours monthly to review, refine, and feed new scenarios

Most institutions skip steps 2, 4, and 6. Then wonder why their "AI chatbot" feels robotic and gets abandoned.

The Results When You Get It Right

Case Snapshot: StudyExpo x Via Academica

Before their university expo, leading regional agency Via Academica launched an AI-powered admissions avatar. Results:

• Hundreds of student sessions per week

• 2.6× longer average session time

• Most common confusion points were fed into their CRM and campaign flows

• Over 50% of advisor calls were pre-qualified via the avatar

• Sensitive questions around finances, housing, and visas were asked anonymously through AI

That’s not automation. That’s access at scale.

Their human advisors now spend less time answering "What are your entry requirements?" and more time on conversations like "Help me convince my parents this is the right choice."

What This Means for Your Admissions Team

Let’s bring it back to outcomes.

If a student can’t ask their question, they won’t apply. If your team has to answer everything manually, they’ll burn out.

AI doesn’t replace your team. It protects them.

• Fewer cold leads

• More warm conversations

• Continuous Open Day and funnel optimization

This is how leading universities scale without sacrificing quality.

The Bottom Line

Admissions has changed. Student behavior has changed.
And the institutions that respond with systems that guide, listen, and adapt will win the next decade.

Because this isn’t about AI. It’s about reducing friction between intent and action.

And doing it in a way that supports your team, not stretches it.

👀 Want to see it in action?

We’re running 15-minute LIVE walkthroughs showing anonymized real student questions and how our AI assistant handles them in context.

📅 [Book your Spot Here]

Vlad