The Promise of Hybrid AI-Human Student Support: From Coexisting to Collaborating

AI and human connection: A powerful student support model 

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Higher education institutions are being asked to do more with less: improve student outcomes, demonstrate ROI, and personalize the student experience — all while facing mounting financial pressures. AI has quickly become central to that conversation, yet the discourse often frames AI as either a substitute for human support or a simple efficiency tool. Many institutions have shifted toward leveraging both AI tools and human resources to support students, but often in parallel rather than as an integrated strategy. Like other institutional silos, the divide can limit the effectiveness of both. 

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Where does human judgment, empathy and expertise matter most? And what becomes possible when technology and people are deployed to work together rather than in parallel?

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Hosted in partnership with The Chronicle of Higher Education and moderated by Julia Freeland Fisher of the Clayton Christensen Institute, this panel brings together leadership from InsideTrack and Mainstay alongside institutional leaders from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and Union College of Union County, NJ to explore the real-world strengths of both AI and human-powered support models — and to look ahead at the promise of a more hybrid approach.