Prospective college students are increasingly using AI-powered tools like ChatGPT to search for information about higher education programs. A Pew Research Center survey found that 60% of U.S. adults have read AI-generated summaries, and 42% use AI chatbots to search for information.

Impact on Higher Education

The shift is already showing up in learner behavior, with nearly half of prospective adult learners using AI-powered tools weekly. More than half of prospective students surveyed said they are more likely to trust brands cited in AI Overviews.

Online higher-ed program marketing is no longer just about earning strong organic rankings and converting visibility on a well-built program website. Institutions must now invest in how their programs appear inside AI-generated answers, treating visibility within a chatbot response as the new threshold for discovery.

A 2025 UPCEA and Search Influence study found that 79% of prospective adult learners read Google AI Overviews, and that visibility no longer depends mainly on where a program ranks in Google. It depends on how AI systems source, interpret, and present information about that program.

Adapting to AI-First Discovery

Higher-ed providers are rethinking how programs are surfaced and compared. Rather than optimizing for clicks, some institutions are investing in how their programs appear inside AI-generated answers.

A June 2026 SparkToro analysis found that 68.01% of U.S. Google searches ended without a click. Hard numbers on AI-driven program discovery are still scarce, but much of what exists comes from companies building for it.

2U reports that partner programs adopting AI-discovery practices have seen their mentions in AI-generated summaries double, and that traffic arriving from ChatGPT has climbed since 2025 and converts at twice the rate of other organic sources.

Original reporting: KRDO (Colorado Springs metro) — read the source article.