On Thursday, February 16th, 2023, CampusXR hosted a live webinar with colleagues in admissions discussing the implications of generative artificial intelligence. The conversation can be found in its entirety here for review. Let's get into some key bits.
AI (artificial intelligence) aims to create technology that can understand and interact with users in a way that resembles human beings. This is typically in the form of systems or models that experience, make decisions, and solve problems without being explicitly programmed to do so. So when you hear the term AI, think: a self-learning model that is created to closely resemble the way humans process information and make decisions. Thus, as opposed to human beings having to adapt to get information from a computer, the computer will adapt itself to interact with human beings the way we naturally process information.
How it All works (kinda):
To better understand AI, it's necessary to dig into a few primary technologies that make up our fundamental understanding of Artificial intelligence. Two major subsections of AI are Deep Learning and Natural Language Processing (NLP).
NLP is a field of AI and computational linguistics; the technology allows computers to interpret and generate output in a way humans can understand. It involves computer science, linguistics, and mathematics to develop algorithms and models to analyze and understand human language. It extracts meaning, finds patterns, and makes predictions. NLP technology weighs the importance of words in a given sentence or sequence to produce better outputs. For example, the sentence "Tell me the best way to get to school" is a phrase that holds words of various importance. They are all necessary words for the sentence, but the actual content derives from: tell, best way, get school. NLP technology creates algorithms to guess the most critical information in a sequence based on billions of parameters of trained data sets to guess the most efficient and accurate response.
Deep Learning is a subset of machine learning and a branch of AI. It is concerned with developing algorithms and models generated based on reviewing large amounts of data. It uses a structure called "artificial neural networks," replicating how human brains process information. Therefore AI can retain, process, and learn from prior experiences to interact more accurately, realistically, and human-like. But hey… That's all technical and complicated. Let's get an explanation straight from the source.
The Overall
Phew, glad that's over. Now that the specifics are all laid out let's get into an overview of some of the many superpowers that come with generative AI.
- The ability to brainstorm broad parameters of use instantly.
- Streamline efficiency by creating quick and unique content.
- Generate analytics and real-time feedback for campaigns and marketing material.
But how? You might be asking yourself. Well, AI novice, it's pretty simple. Let's dive into a few prime examples of tools you can use RIGHT NOW.
Chat GPT
The creme de la creme. The one we all know and hate to love. But what is it exactly, and how do we use it? The beautiful thing about ChatGPT is that the parameters you can ask of it are incredibly vast. From asking it to help outline a marketing campaign to coming up with a striking headline for a subject email, it can generate outputs in seconds that can save you hours of precious time. For example, say you just wrapped up a college fair and are stuck writing to prospective students interested in your booth. With ChatGPT, tell it to "Outline a follow-up email to an interested prospective student," and voila, there it is. Need to make it more personal? Just tell GPT what to incorporate, and it'll find a way. In a matter of minutes, create a dozen highly personalized outreach follow-ups. It doesn't just have to be an email; it can be your whole marketing strategy. Ask it for advice on a headline you wrote or a whitepaper or presentation material. The possibilities for this one are constantly expanding.
DALL-E 2
The stable diffusion-powered model can create several images based on text. The ways this can speed up design projects are pretty straightforward. While many images aren't magazine cover quality yet, it can be a great way to brainstorm the types of images for your design team to create. Instead of having to write highly descriptive campaign designs for someone else to try to understand and put to paper, the image generator can come up with ideas instantly. Play around with it and find what you foresee a potential copy or newsletter image to look like, and quickly generate highly detailed storyboards for ongoing projects.
Copy.AI
This is a fun one. Create unique copy material in seconds. Sounds like heaven to all my party content marketing people, right? It is! Powered by NLP and deep Learning to generate unique marketing content in seconds. Provide a description and general summary of what type of copy you need and watch it come to life. Then, tailor to your audience of choice with customizable tones and styles of writing. There are settings for writing newsletters, Linkedin posts, follow-up emails, blog posts, and more. With over 90 tools and templates, something is guaranteed to suit your marketing needs.
Synthesia
Calling all fans of Ex-Machina for this one. While there are, unfortunately, no Alicia Vikander avatars yet, choose from a selection of different AIs to generate a video that puts your written text into spoken word. Trained by analyzing human speech patterns, Synthesia takes the inputted text and analyzes it to generate realistic vocal patterns and nuanced speech. Select your avatar of choice, input text for a campaign or presentation, and watch a high-quality digitally produced render created in minutes, with no lights, cameras, or action needed: overlay text, music, and branding content to fit your campaign's needs.
Futurepedia
One can get stuck exploring the many different use cases AI offers. With more and more being developed every single day, Futurepedia is currently the best resource out there that keeps track of newly developed AIs. It shows the cost and description and provides a link to the generative AI model. So fret not; adventure is out there. The only caution would be to understand that this is an all-encompassing directory; it does not just pertain to ChatGPT quality AIs. Finding something worth adding to your AI toolkit can take some digging, but boy oh boy is it worth it.
Implications for Admissions
The question you all want to know… So the AI revolution is here; what now? Unfortunately, the answer isn't quite so simple. It can be hard to predict where the future of AI is going, but where it is currently can already be utilized for your next admissions campaign cycle. Our findings have shown that the best way to utilize AI is for content marketing and image/text creation. Some examples for admissions might include:
- Creating custom answers to student queries, pulling from all information available from brochures to websites in a personal, high-touch way.
- Social media content creation - easy video and images for newsletters and social posting.
- Change considerations for SEO - as students use AI for searches in place of traditional search engines (Search and SEO to be revolutionized)
- XR Integration - e.g., have an AI guide on augmented reality tours/in person or VR tours.
- AI-generated emails can remind students about important deadlines, prompt them to register for classes, turn in assignments and pay their fees on time.
- Analyzing data to help admissions offices increase their yield from applicants, student enrollment retention, targeting financial aid, and optimizing alum donors. Identifying demographics, family income, and family history who will most likely respond to outreach.
CampusXR AI Guide for All
That's right… All this talk of AI with no products to implement into your current system... Well, not anymore. CampusXR has been hard at work on creating ways for you to integrate AI into a variety of mediums. From your school/company website, to your favorite AR business card. So, if you're stuck answering dozens of basic student queries, look no further. These AI-powered characters are entirely customizable and can train on your data—link to a school website or custom FAQs that create an interactive, fully functional AI guide.
Have realistic back and forth conversations that are far beyond the capacity of your average joe chatbox. AI characters can adapt to prospective students' language and interests to create a more individualized experience for all different types of users. It can repeat application deadlines, provide housing information, and even suggest things to do, like what fun museums are in the area. It's an entirely fully functioning AI-powered character whose personality, knowledge, background, and appearance can be tailored completely. It can be integrated into your favorite AR business card or even a virtual tour to answer any questions related to campus life.