Data, Agents, and the Future of Enrollment with Encoura Connect

Jaime Hunt welcomes a special guest, Dave Hunt, to celebrate his new role as the Senior Strategic Advisor for AI Enrollment Marketing and Brand at Solve Higher Ed. The conversation moves beyond the typical discussion of marketing tactics to explore the philosophy of professional growth and strategic leadership within higher education.

Howard Heevner says the real giving problem is a 30-point gap between alumni satisfaction with their education and with the post-grad relationship—alumni who feel known give far more—and AI can't fix that without trust.

Ardis Kadiu of Andi tells Brian Piper that most institutions remain stuck in early-stage "skills" rather than true autonomous agents, argues human taste and leadership-driven work redesign matter more as AI handles production, and predicts that by 2027 the "harness" around models—not raw intelligence—plus the gap between AI capability and organizational adoption will define success, while also touching on AI's impact on learning assessment and his own family-AI venture, Andi.

This week, we spoke with Joe Abraham of Intellicampus about the growing challenge of system fragmentation in higher education and why institutions must rethink their digital infrastructure in the age of AI.

Drew Lurker of CollegeSource joins to discuss how technology, shared data, and statewide initiatives are making transfer credit evaluation more transparent and student-centered, plus AI's promise and risks in transcript evaluation and the need to balance speed with human judgment and trust.