Key points:
Navigation and orientation are a fundamental resource, but unfortunately it remains understaffed. This challenge is becoming critically important with the proliferation of non-traditional college pathways: navigation and orientation will be the critical component in building emerging pathways to the labor market.
And while many higher education institutions have invested in ai, there is limited research on the short- and long-term impact that robot-powered advising has on student support, advice, and job referrals.
With the right tools and market conditions, ai could enable more schools to offer high-level, high-touch support to students, say Julia Freeland Fisher and Anna Arsenault of the Clayton Christensen Institute. <a target="_blank" href="https://www.christenseninstitute.org/publication/navigation-guidance-ai” target=”_blank” rel=”noreferrer noopener”>in a new report.
But without the right incentives, robots will be on track to replace, rather than extend, human connections. Bots can provide all kinds of advice and guidance. But their ability to help falls short of the power of warm introductions and references, a key aspect of landing a job in today's job market.
And if we simply equip students with better robots but not broader networks, we will be overinvesting in information and underinvesting in opportunity.
ai-based guidance is on its way to disrupting traditional forms of human-led guidance. If current metrics hold, as generative ai (GenAI) becomes more sophisticated, students will have more access to affordable, on-demand, bot-generated advice and support.
But compared to those same metrics, network access is unlikely to grow and could even shrink as bots are designed to offer more and more forms of social support, even though connections are important for optionality. , access and professional success.
Although the market is in its infancy, there are signs of what is to come. The research identifies five key trends shaping human relationships in navigation and guidance systems in the age of ai.
Trend 1: The lines between human and robot support are increasingly blurred. How much social-emotional support? ought What do bots offer young people?
Trend 2: Both logistical and psychological factors are driving bot-student participation. When do chatbots expand access and when do they make isolation more convenient and comfortable?
Trend 3: Today's navigation and wayfinding market does not treat relationships as a
central result. Could navigation and wayfinding become more relational and networked in the age of ai?
Trend 4: Leaders are hopeful that ai will enable advisors to take on more relational work as coaches and connectors. What will the navigation and orientation be like?
Does the market need to evolve to prioritize and scale relational work?
Trend 5: Despite limited demand to build relationships, innovators are spearheading creative ways to scale human connections. How might we safeguard and expand human connection in the field of navigation and wayfinding in the age of ai?
!function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s)
{if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?
n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};
if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version=’2.0′;
n.queue=();t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;
t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)(0);
s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window, document,’script’,
‘https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/fbevents.js’);
fbq(‘init’, ‘6079750752134785’);
fbq(‘track’, ‘PageView’);
