Top People Changing Career Education Award

CECU AI Task Force

Stephen Arthur
Co-chair
Director of AI and Analytics
ECPI University

Dana B. Hutton
Co-chair
Chief Marketing & Enrollment
Management Officer
Southeastern College

 

Mitch Talenfeld
Co-chair
CEO
MDT Marketing

When ChatGPT was launched in November 2022, it became clear that generative artificial intelligence (AI) would reshape every facet of business and education. Recognizing both its promise and risk, Career Education Colleges and Universities (CECU) proactively moved to safeguard career schools and their students. By summer 2024, CECU’s board of directors had authorized the formation of an AI Task Force charged with developing a best practices guide to help member institutions adopt AI tools responsibly, protect consumer trust and comply with emerging laws and regulations.

The AI Task Force was comprised of nearly 40 volunteers and co-chaired by Stephen Arthur, director of AI and Analytics at ECPI University, Dana B. Hutton, Chief Marketing and Enrollment Management Officer at Southeastern College, and Mitch Talenfeld, CEO of MDT Marketing. After investing countless personal hours over the past year, volunteers released the guide at the 2025 North American Career Education Convention this summer. The co-chairs also wrote articles, posted on LinkedIn, appeared on higher-education podcasts, and more.

The comprehensive guide, “How Artificial Intelligence is Transforming Higher Education Marketing and Enrollment Management: A Best Practices Guide for Schools,” serves as both a roadmap and a cautionary framework for higher education institutions. Delving into marketing and enrollment, it illustrates how AI can be used as a tool to enhance human oversight in these areas, using predictive analytics and generative tools to attract, engage, and enroll students. Both opportunities and challenges are addressed, including the ability to personalize at scale, improve efficiency in communication, and data for informed decision making, while considering the technology’s risks around bias, compliance and privacy.

Within the guide are ideas on how to implement AI according to its strengths, with the ultimate goal of improving student success and institutional outcomes. Ideas include the endorsement of using AI tools to create highly tailored marketing campaigns, generating text for emails, blogs and social media, chatbots for instant student support, and visual generation for compelling storytelling. Generating predictive and descriptive analytics can further empower marketing efforts by identifying prospective students and optimizing outreach timing and support enrollment management by forecasting enrollment trends and informing financial aid communication.

Implementing these AI tools will help institutions harness the technology to best serve their purposes. Through the guide, institutions will have their questions answered on how to maximalize the technology’s creative and administrative abilities while balancing legal and ethical considerations, an extensive overview of which can be found in the appendices. As a bonus, the guide also offers a framework for successful AI adoption that keeps student outcomes at the center.

“By issuing this report and recommendations, we are stepping forward to help lead this effort with transparency and accountability,” said Jason Altmire, CEO and President of CECU. “It is our hope that the information presented in this report will help drive student success and maximize educational outcomes, positioning our graduates to continue to succeed in the ever-changing workforce.”

Through swift action, thoughtful collaboration and transparent advocacy, the CECU AI Task Force exemplified visionary leadership, equipping career education institutions with the guidance needed to harness AI’s benefits while safeguarding student outcomes and industry integrity. Their dedication and persistence through challenges such as evolving technologies and shifting regulations exemplify the passion and professionalism that have made this best-practices guide possible.