AI tools in action for international student recruitment
The following article is adapted from the 2026 edition of ICEF Insights magazine, which is freely available to download now.
Purpose-built design
Greg Holz, assistant director for global engagement, University of
Central Missouri (United States)
If we’re talking LLMs, I’d recommend Perplexity, especially now with Comet, their dedicated browser. It’s great for research, cutting through SEO junk and sponsored results. But for international recruitment, AIDO takes things a step further. It’s built on the Perplexity model but designed for our industry, so the data it pulls is current and from relevant IEM sources. AIDO has been crucial in helping me gather evidence and build a case for our ongoing recruitment strategies in Southeast Asia, giving me confidence that I’m working from the best information available when making important planning decisions.
The multi-tool
Rishab Malhotra, founder & CEO, AIDO (United States)
As an international ed-tech entrepreneur, the AI I consider indispensable is ChatGPT. I rely on it daily to power my work across multiple fronts: building custom GPTs tailored to different goals, managing complex tasks and projects, prototyping features, “vibe coding” quick interfaces for HTML emails, and developing proofs of concept at speed. What would normally take days of trial and error can be iterated in hours with ChatGPT as a creative and technical partner. For me, it’s less a single Q/A tool and more an always-on collaborator that makes rapid innovation in AI-driven education technology possible.
Better lead data
Priyank Mistri, manager, digital recruitment, Centennial College (Canada)
As a digital recruitment manager, I rely on Zoho DataPrep, an AI-powered ETL (Extract, Transform, Load) tool that transforms how we manage prospective student information from multiple platforms before importing it into our CRM system.
Lead data often arrives fragmented with inconsistent formats, duplicate entries, incomplete fields, or errors. Zoho DataPrep automatically cleans, validates, and standardises this information, then integrates it into our CRM, ensuring accurate reporting and enabling timely engagement campaigns. By eliminating these operational barriers, my team can focus on strategic digital recruitment, driving stronger student engagement and faster conversions, and saving countless hours otherwise lost to manual fixes.
24/7 support
Guus Goorts, higher education marketing consultant and author (the Netherlands)
Expertise.ai’s AI chatbot replaced live WhatsApp support for a language school I work with. It answers routine programme questions in multiple languages, 24/7, and forwards tricky cases to staff. The switch accelerated response times, smoothed applicant journeys, and freed advisors for higher-value tasks. Caveat: Any AI chatbot is only as good as its training, and it took months of training to get the bot to not just answer questions correctly, but also to sell in a consultative way.
Streamlined admissions processes
Oana Lelcu, global sales and marketing director, SRH Universities (Germany)
Youni’s AI Admissions solution dramatically reduces HR costs while scaling international student recruitment. It automates document validation (transcripts, diplomas, language certificates, passports) with 99% accuracy in seconds, eliminating expensive and time-consuming manual processing. Our admissions team escapes tedious admin work to focus on high-value activities: candidate advising, relationship building, and strategic recruitment. Students receive fast decisions with actionable feedback, accelerating enrolment cycles. This speed advantage directly drives higher conversion rates while our staffing costs remain flat at during rapid growth. Scale smart, not hard.
A new way to search
Kyle Campbell, founder and managing director, Education Marketer (United Kingdom)
As an education marketer, my go-to is ChatGPT-5, not for content creation or data analysis, but for how quickly it can build digital tools. Recently, I pretended I was going to uni for the first time and was interested in game development, with aspirations to run my own indie studio (a boy can dream). I asked ChatGPT-5 to build me a tool that “helps me discover the right choice for me.” And it did. Within 10 minutes, I had an app that indexed gaming institutions across the world, where I could customise my “fit” preferences and dynamically sort results. Tell me that doesn’t change the face of how students discover their university choices.
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