AI Assistants in Universities — What They Can (and Can’t) Do Yet

AI assistants have quickly become the face of digital transformation on campus. But what’s real progress versus hype?

What They Can Do

1. 24×7 Student Support — Handle admissions, course queries, and fee FAQs instantly.
2. Faculty Assistance — Summarize course discussions, auto-draft announcements, and prepare lecture briefs.
3. Admin Automation — Generate reports, schedule meetings, and track compliance.
4. Personalized Nudges — Remind learners about deadlines or upcoming sessions.

What They Still Can’t

• Exhibit deep emotional intelligence.
• Resolve nuanced academic disputes.
• Replace structured pedagogical feedback.

The Road Ahead

Future assistants will be multimodal and context-aware — pulling from institutional data lakes, not public LLMs.

AI assistants shouldn’t just talk; they should think with your institution’s data.