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March 21, 2025
Jeff Dillon
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AI is transforming how websites work, and many colleges are eager to add AI-powered search and chatbots to their digital toolbox. It’s easy to see why – these technologies offer potential improvements to user experiences and new ways to connect students with information.
But here’s the thing: implementing AI solutions like chatbots and intelligent search on your higher ed website isn’t just about plugging in new technology. Your website needs a solid foundation of well-organized content, clear information architecture and accessible design first, or these AI tools might end up providing inaccurate information, creating frustrating user experiences, or even reinforcing existing gaps in your digital services.
In higher education, AI models learn directly from the content institutions generate, including research, course materials and administrative documents. If that content is disorganized or outdated, the AI will echo those issues in its responses, potentially confusing students and faculty. To avoid this, universities should regularly update and properly structure their data so AI tools provide accurate and reliable insights.
Before you invest in AI solutions, take an honest look at these indicators that your website might not be ready yet:
The clearest indicator that your website isn’t ready for AI is poor performance in traditional site search. If your current search functionality can’t deliver relevant results, adding AI won’t magically fix these underlying issues.
Consider a common scenario: students searching for “Spring 2025 registration dates” receive results from 2023, while department-specific information remains buried beneath generic content. Course catalog searches often miss relevant results due to inconsistent metadata, and crucial information in PDF documents fails to appear in search results. Most tellingly, search results struggle to recognize common synonyms or alternative phrasings that students naturally use.
In higher education, website content often grows organically across numerous departments, creating a complex web of information that’s difficult to manage. Without strong digital governance, implementing AI could create more chaos than clarity.
The challenge is particularly acute in higher education, where content publishers often number in the hundreds, each with varying levels of training and understanding of content strategy. Content review cycles become irregular or nonexistent, leading to outdated information lingering on rarely-visited pages. The absence of clear guidelines for content creation and maintenance results in inconsistent voice and style across departments, making it difficult for AI to understand and accurately represent your institution’s voice.
A critical yet often overlooked aspect of AI readiness is website accessibility. If your site struggles with WCAG compliance, adding AI could exacerbate accessibility issues. This extends beyond just making content readable – AI interfaces must be accessible to all users, including those with disabilities. Screen readers need to properly interpret AI-generated responses, and dynamic content updates must maintain accessibility standards.
Consider how alternative text and proper heading structure become even more crucial when AI is generating or organizing content. Keyboard navigation needs to work seamlessly with AI interfaces, ensuring that all users can access the enhanced functionality AI provides.
The way users access higher education websites is rapidly evolving. While traditional navigation menus and carefully planned information architecture remain important, they’re no longer the primary way many users interact with your content. Users increasingly land directly on deep content pages through search engines, social media and third-party education platforms. Mobile users typically prefer search over menu navigation, and AI chatbots often direct users to precise content locations, bypassing homepage navigation entirely.
Traditional top-down navigation is becoming less critical as search behaviors change. Users expect to find information through natural language queries rather than menu hierarchies. This shift means your content needs to stand on its own, independent of navigational context. Each page should provide clear contextual information and relevant related links, while metadata becomes increasingly crucial for AI to understand content relationships.
While AI promises exciting possibilities for higher education websites, it’s not a silver bullet. The stakes are too high to rely solely on AI-generated summaries or responses. Instead, institutions should pursue a hybrid approach: combining traditional search optimization with core technology, LLM (Large Language Model) capabilities and active human oversight.
Before implementing AI, focus on strengthening your website’s foundation. Invest in improving search functionality, establish robust digital governance and ensure accessibility compliance. Only then can AI enhance, rather than complicate, your digital presence.
This hybrid model blends the power of core systems, advanced AI and human intelligence. By using each component for what it does best, institutions can preserve accuracy and authority while offering a more effective digital experience for higher education stakeholders.
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