AI in Higher Education: A Practical Guide for Creatives and Marketers

Amidst a 7.5% declining enrollment and heightened competition for a dwindling pool of prospective students, universities face increasing pressure to maximize their outreach and engagement efforts. Marketing and communications professionals in higher education are navigating a challenging time, burdened by the need to do more with less.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is emerging as the critical tool in this environment. It offers the capability to automate routine tasks, freeing up teams to focus on creating impactful narratives that resonate with students, alumni, and potential donors.

But, as institutions increasingly rely on AI, they must also navigate the ethical considerations it brings, ensuring that their use of technology aligns with the values of educational integrity and transparency.

Let’s explore how AI-powered digital asset management (DAM) systems streamline workflows and enhance creative and strategic efforts to address these pressing challenges in higher education.

AI streamlines repetitive tasks

Universities host countless events, programs, and daily activities. Each generates a massive volume of media that must be processed and managed. 

AI technology significantly enhances productivity by automating tedious tasks, such as:

• Sorting through photographs and videos from various events quickly and efficiently.
• Tagging content with AI recognition for faces, logos, locations, and themes.
• Organizing digital media into easily searchable categories ensures that teams can allocate more resources to strategic and creative endeavors.
• Retrieving content is made effortless with AI tools, pulling assets based on specific criteria in seconds.
• Delivering media is streamlined through automation, ensuring it reaches the right platforms or teams without delay.

• Sharing assets is simplified, allowing seamless distribution across teams or platforms with just a few clicks.

At Louisiana State University (LSU), AI tagging tools have cut the time needed to sort through event images by 50%. Marketing and communications staff can now quickly find the right images for campaigns, reducing turnaround times and enhancing the relevance of their communications. Chris Parent, LSU’s former Photography Director, used PhotoShelter’s real-time workflow to go from lens to live in seconds. 

By handling the repetitive aspects of content management, AI streamlines workflows and ensures consistency in tagging and filing, crucial for maintaining an organized and searchable digital asset library. This is key for teams who need quick access to historical content.

Discover the power of AI in streamlining your university’s operations firsthand. Book a demo with PhotoShelter today and see how our solutions can transform your strategies.

Efficiency gains and time savings

The adoption of AI in higher education marketing and communications not only simplifies tasks but also dramatically enhances efficiency. This translates into tangible time savings and increased productivity for teams stretched thin by extensive responsibilities. AI’s ability to quickly process and organize vast amounts of digital content allows staff to focus on higher-value tasks that require human insight and creativity.

These AI features will: 

• Help you uncover assets you’d never think to tag. 
• Save you countless hours per month looking for visual assets.
• Reduce expenses when you automate your workflow with AI.

The efficiency gained from AI tools means that marketing and communications departments can optimize their resources while delivering high-quality content that engages their audiences effectively. As these tools evolve, they promise even more significant gains.

Better collaboration across departments

AI is transforming the way individual departments operate and collaborate. The ecosystem of higher education is complex. Different departments, such as marketing, admissions, athletics, and alumni relations, often work in silos. 

Here’s how DAM and AI tools break down barriers and foster a more integrated approach.

Streamline communication

Everyone can be on the same page because everything’s in one central location. Collaboration on images, videos, and designs can all be done in one central location. In-house, remote, or distributed teams can chat about projects in real time no matter where or what device they’re on. 

Share content easier

By making digital assets readily accessible and searchable across departments, AI enables a seamless sharing of resources. For instance, a photo captured by the athletics department during a game can be instantly available for the marketing team to use in a promotional campaign or for admissions to feature in prospective student outreach. This streamlined access reduces redundancy and ensures all departments leverage the full spectrum of available content to enhance their initiatives.

Powerful analytics 

Help every department understand which content performs best across different platforms and audiences, enabling a data-informed approach to content creation and distribution. Reports, metrics, and tracking are all easy to view and understand.This collaborative environment saves time and leads to more coherent and aligned messaging across all university communications. Learn how you can make better data-driven content decisions with PhotoShelter Analytics.

AI training and integration for success

While the benefits of AI in higher education are clear, successful implementation hinges on practical training and seamless integration into existing systems. To truly harness the power of AI, universities must ensure that their teams are well-equipped to utilize these tools effectively.

Investing in comprehensive training programs is essential. These programs should cover the technical aspects of operating AI tools and emphasize best practices for integrating AI into daily workflows. By doing so, institutions can mitigate any potential disruptions that new technologies might cause and enhance staff confidence in using these systems.

Support shouldn’t end with initial training. Ongoing support and updates are crucial as AI technologies evolve. Universities should provide continuous learning opportunities to help staff keep up with the latest advancements and ensure that AI tools are used to their full potential.

The key to successful AI integration lies in demonstrating its value to all stakeholders, from the technical staff operating the systems to the leadership team that will endorse its use. Highlighting case studies and real-world examples of efficiency gains and improved outcomes can help secure buy-in.

AI in photo editing & the ethics of image manipulation

The deployment of AI in photo editing has brought significant advancements to higher education marketing, notably in enhancing image quality through color correction, contrast adjustments, noise reduction, cropping, generative fill, and batch processing. 

Ethical concerns also extend to the extent of permissible edits. The educational sector often debates the fine line between necessary enhancement and excessive manipulation that could misrepresent the truth. For example, overly processed images may fail to represent campus life, leading to potential stakeholder disillusionment.

Universities must navigate these challenges carefully, developing clear guidelines on the ethical use of AI in image processing. By doing so, they uphold the authenticity of their visual communications and preserve the trust of their audience.

Looking Ahead: The future of AI in higher ed 

AI’s role is set to grow. Soon, it could automate complex tasks like creating personalized student outreach or analyzing engagement trends to tailor marketing strategies better. By staying ahead of AI advancements, universities can adapt to changes swiftly, keeping their marketing efforts both innovative and relevant.

AI in higher education is more than just being efficient; it’s about empowering creatives to do what they do best—create. By automating tedious tasks, AI frees up space for genuine creativity and innovation, helping you produce content that resonates deeply with your audience. 

This is a remarkable opportunity to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of university marketing and photography. By automating routine tasks, AI allows creative teams to focus on crafting stories that resonate with students. However, as AI technology advances, universities must carefully manage its use to maintain the trust and confidence of their stakeholders.

Level up your school’s content strategy with the Education Marketer’s Guide 

We created The Education Marketer’s Guide to help you develop high-quality visual content at scale that will attract applicants, wow students, and impress donors. Get your copy.