HEUG AI Innovators Network

Hello All, 

It has been a while since I posted to the HEUG AI Innovators Network. My team and I have been busy working on some exciting new things with AI and GenAI with our customers and I will be sharing updates on those soon via blogs and case study links. 

I have also been spending some time researching Use Cases for GenAI for Education customers. While AI, GenAI and ML (part of AI) can be applied to solve problems in Education in many ways today, some of them require a lot of upfront investment (time, money, resources) whereas others may fall into the proverbial "low hanging fruit" category. I am leaning towards the latter because there is still a lot of uncertainty about AI and its uses, its business value, and to some extent its faults and some of the ethical challenges that may arise out of those faults. 

So what constitutes a "low hanging fruit" AI Use Case that Education customers can consider? I think the following combination of as follows and I am interested in knowing what this group thinks. 

1. Broad vs. Narrow scope - An AI Use Case that can be applied to a wide range of users or a high volume of users rather than a small group
2. Low initial investment - While the term "low investment" may be interpreted differently by each organization, what I am looking for here is a solution that can be implemented within 3 to 4 months with some OOTB components, some custom work, and a small team of partially dedicated professionals. 
3. High ROI - The holy grail of IT solutions, low cost, high ROI and why not throw in low TCO also into the  mix. Now, this is rarely a realized combination, we can all agree to that, though there may be exceptions. However, there are high ROI AI Use Cases such as Intelligent Document Processing, Help Desk Automation, Recruitment and so on.
4. Easy adoption - The AI Use Case should have solutions that are easy to adopt, which implies that change management, training, and testing should not be overly cumbersome. 
5. Easy maintenance - The AI Use Case should have solutions that are easy to maintain, thus contributing to low TCO. 

With these in mind, I want to propose the first of many Use Cases to this community for discussion. Please see the document titled Use Case Document_ GenAI + RAG for Student Help Desk.PDF in the library and feel free to drop your comments here in reply to this post or start a new discussion thread specifically for that use case. 

AI'nt no time like now to be in technology. :-)

• Arvind Rajan

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Arvind Rajan
Chief Executive Officer
Astute Business Solutions
9259241403
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Message from the HEUG Marketplace:
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Find, Review, and Engage with Higher Education-focused solution providers, products, and services using the HEUG Marketplace.
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Thank you for this!  We are working with several use cases for our AI Chatbot.  I look forward to following this thread!

-Holly

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Holly Whistler Ed.D.
Coordinator of the OVN
Virginia Community College System
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Message from the HEUG Marketplace:
------------------------------
Find, Review, and Engage with Higher Education-focused solution providers, products, and services using the HEUG Marketplace.
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 06-20-2024 02:07 PM
From: Arvind Rajan
Subject: GenAI Use Cases for Education

Hello All, 

It has been a while since I posted to the HEUG AI Innovators Network. My team and I have been busy working on some exciting new things with AI and GenAI with our customers and I will be sharing updates on those soon via blogs and case study links. 

I have also been spending some time researching Use Cases for GenAI for Education customers. While AI, GenAI and ML (part of AI) can be applied to solve problems in Education in many ways today, some of them require a lot of upfront investment (time, money, resources) whereas others may fall into the proverbial "low hanging fruit" category. I am leaning towards the latter because there is still a lot of uncertainty about AI and its uses, its business value, and to some extent its faults and some of the ethical challenges that may arise out of those faults. 

So what constitutes a "low hanging fruit" AI Use Case that Education customers can consider? I think the following combination of as follows and I am interested in knowing what this group thinks. 

1. Broad vs. Narrow scope - An AI Use Case that can be applied to a wide range of users or a high volume of users rather than a small group
2. Low initial investment - While the term "low investment" may be interpreted differently by each organization, what I am looking for here is a solution that can be implemented within 3 to 4 months with some OOTB components, some custom work, and a small team of partially dedicated professionals. 
3. High ROI - The holy grail of IT solutions, low cost, high ROI and why not throw in low TCO also into the  mix. Now, this is rarely a realized combination, we can all agree to that, though there may be exceptions. However, there are high ROI AI Use Cases such as Intelligent Document Processing, Help Desk Automation, Recruitment and so on.
4. Easy adoption - The AI Use Case should have solutions that are easy to adopt, which implies that change management, training, and testing should not be overly cumbersome. 
5. Easy maintenance - The AI Use Case should have solutions that are easy to maintain, thus contributing to low TCO. 

With these in mind, I want to propose the first of many Use Cases to this community for discussion. Please see the document titled Use Case Document_ GenAI + RAG for Student Help Desk.PDF in the library and feel free to drop your comments here in reply to this post or start a new discussion thread specifically for that use case. 

AI'nt no time like now to be in technology. :-)

• Arvind Rajan

------------------------------
Arvind Rajan
Chief Executive Officer
Astute Business Solutions
9259241403
------------------------------

Message from the HEUG Marketplace:
------------------------------
Find, Review, and Engage with Higher Education-focused solution providers, products, and services using the HEUG Marketplace.
------------------------------