Building Better Student Experiences with AI-Driven Innovation

The UIT-CRM team in University Support Services has harnessed artificial intelligence to make smarter, more effective use of development time on the Graduate School Success project. The goal is to streamline tools for Graduate Program advisors and coordinators by bringing existing processes into the Salesforce platform.

The Challenge: Modeling Diverse Student Journeys
One of the team’s biggest challenges was modeling a Graduate student’s path to a degree across a wide range of programs and academic journeys. To do this well, the team needed realistic student personas that included personal details, images, and academic data. Personas are essential for software design and testing, bridging the gap between static data and realistic, human representations. However, using real student data creates privacy risks, and stock image libraries often don't offer the diversity or volume needed to accurately represent the student population.

The Solution: AI-Generated Personas
Michelle Boyd, Principal Salesforce Administrator, leveraged AI-driven tools to generate rich, detailed personas in minutes instead of hours. Carefully crafted prompts produced headshots and background details that reflect the University’s diverse Graduate community, helping staff and faculty visualize real-world scenarios without exposing personally identifiable information.

Impact Across Campus
This innovation will benefit departments across campus by enabling a more intuitive, privacy-conscious system. Boyd’s work highlights how AI can improve operational efficiency and deliver scalable solutions for complex institutional projects.

Collaborators include Andrew Nelson, Barb Iannucci, Brandon Gresham, Doug Lloyd, Josh Barton, Kathryn Reese, Nikhila Kasha, and Ryan Hines.