As many factors force changes in higher education, career services technology can help their institutions come out ahead with the right strategy and the right tools.
The Inflection Point
Higher education as a whole is in a pivotal moment, and career services is in the spotlight for helping the sector navigate the vast sea changes roiling the waters for colleges and universities. Three forces are converging: federal accountability, shifts in hiring processes and technology, and resource constraints. By adopting artificial technology for career services and revamping processes, departments can meet the moment head-on and be the hero every college administration needs.
Humans Plus A Career Services Tech Stack
Adding career services technology isn’t about replacing humans—it’s about ensuring human expertise reaches students at scale. Using purpose-built career services technology to perform rote tasks frees up team members to counsel students, which is where the real change can happen.
The Compliance Catalyst: Earnings Rule Implications
Although there is still some uncertainty about how the accountability measures included in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act—which passed Congress last summer—will be implement, what is clear is that there will be significant negative consequences for schools that fail the tests. Losing the ability for students to take out Federal Student Loans would put most institutions into a fast downward spiral that could cause them to close. Most institutions would have a tough time surviving any failure to meet these requirements, even before student loan eligibility could be yanked.
Essentially, the earnings rules require certificate and degree or credentialing programs’ graduates to have average earnings higher than those of a high school graduate in that state or in the US if the program enrolls more than 50% of its students from out of state. Under the new framework, the same salary standard will apply across the board at public, nonprofit, and for-profit colleges.. Programs with fewer than 10 graduates may be exempt. Although it is unclear whether some form of these rules will apply to all higher education institutions, it seems likely that all schools and programs could face scrutiny in the coming years. Reporting changes for colleges will begin in 2027, and July 1, 2028 marks the first date programs can lose access to financial-aid funding.
If a program or institution’s graduates make less on average than high school graduates for two consecutive years, the school loses eligibility for federal financial aid through the DOE—including Pell Grants if the institution has a large share of failing programs. The existing debt-to-earnings test has been eliminated as redundant under this new accountability rule. But if a program fails the metric once, they will have to inform incoming students of this fact, which we can expect will be a very heavy deterrent to potential new students.
This transforms job placement rates from a success metric to a survival requirement for colleges, universities, and trade schools. The career development office now becomes a central player in this existential vulnerability for institutions. Career guidance will now be under scrutiny and accountable for helping graduates secure remunerative jobs and for tracking related statistics for government reporting. Where will staff find the time to up their game and serve more students? Adding to your career services tech stack is undoubtedly part of the answer.
The Scalability Math: Good Intentions vs. Reality
The career advisors on staff are already stretched thin and can’t spend as much time with students as they’d like. With staffing ratios averaging 1,381:1, according to the National Association of Colleges and Employers, the math just doesn’t add up. Even with median budgets for career centers rising 21%, that’s just a drop in the bucket of need. Upping efficiency while still successfully getting students employed requires new approaches and tools.
Career services professionals spend an average of 20 hours per week on resume review—transactional work that is crowding out career advice. Even if hiring one or two new staff counselors is within your budget, the daunting staff-to-student ratios still require innovative solutions. The hidden cost of trapping your staff in low-ROI tasks squanders their potential to spend more time on human interaction to boost student success.
The Career Services Technology Reframe: Amplification, Not Replacement
A fear many of us share is that AI will replace us. However, AI doesn’t diminish human value—it multiplies it. Especially when used purposefully for what career services technology does well: pattern recognition, keyword optimization, and format standardization. With 70% of resumes failing to pass ATS screening and reach human eyes, deploying AI to help student resumes make it through an applicant tracking system is common sense. Let the AI perform these routine tasks.
Only humans can provide the context, empathy, and strategic guidance that help students grow and see themselves and their accomplishments clearly. Advisors have the insight and ability to connect with students on a human level that no computer algorithm can accomplish. If each center employee can reclaim 10-15 hours per week from resume review to spend interacting with advisees, that is a win for students and the college. Put the human resources to the best use and let AI do the busy work.
Meeting Students Where They Are
Students are already using artificial intelligence for the job market search, whether or not they engage with career development tools and staff. Why not meet them halfway by showing them how to use AI to improve students’ resumes and tailor them to the job applications they are submitting? By advancing students’ use of AI through a purpose-built tool, you can bring students in to access other valuable services, meet the staff, and level up their job search with the expertise on offer.
If students don’t connect with the career services technology and staff, you miss an opportunity to influence their job-search trajectory. Students may just plug their questions into ChatGPT or watch YouTube videos, and then make a slapdash effort to find employment that will launch a successful professional life. The career center becomes irrelevant, and the overall placement success metrics will show the results.
Technology for Career Services Helps Students
Career centers should take the opportunity to guide effective, ethical AI use rather than cede that educational role to the technology. Implementing a plan to integrate AI tools can increase student engagement and allow staff to help guide students’ use of AI designed for the task at hand: conducting an organized, well-informed, and successful job search.
The Path Forward for Career Services Tech
Incorporating AI into the services on offer for students doesn’t need to be complex. Taking a step-by-step approach to implementation helps your staff adapt and begin to realize the productivity gains that will make their jobs more rewarding as they interact more with internship- and job-seeking students to meet their unique needs. Here are some pointers to get you going:
Start with high-volume, low-complexity tasks
Use AI to format resumes, optimize cover letters, and tailor them for keywords relevant to each job listing. Shift repetitive tasks to technology.
Extend your reach without sacrificing quality
You can incorporate AI chatbots to offer simple help, use automated matching to job postings, and have AI help you prepare virtual workshops.
Leverage data analytics to shift from reactive to proactive programming
Input past years’ data to see trends in student usage and attendance to plan future workshops, job fair attendance, group and individual coaching, and to help publicize services to reach more students.
Adding AI to the mix lets you amplify and expand your services to students without disrupting what’s already working. Think of it as an evolution rather than a revolution, giving you time to shift processes for efficiency and reach while keeping your core mission and content intact.
What Career Services Tools Will Work?
Career center administrators have choices to make about how to move forward in a changed and challenging higher ed landscape. The question isn’t whether to adopt new career services technology, but how to deploy AI most effectively to support your staff.
Freeing up human resources by adding tech can transform career services into the hero of the story. Colleges need employment metrics to survive the coming regulatory requirements, and effective, forward-looking management is the only way to measurably expand services within tight budgets.
Technology adoption is the key to preserving career advising’s human core by protecting advisor capacity. Now is the time to assess your current technology stack against your scalability needs and formulate a strategy to be accountable for gainfully employing graduates and helping trumpet your institution’s value for prospective students, parents, government agencies, and the general public.
