AI in Student Support: Helpful, But Not Enough to Keep Students Enrolled

In our last post, we explored the missing third space in online education, the informal environments where belonging, encouragement, and connection naturally flourish. We looked at how digital student unions can bring that same sense of community online and give learners the connections they need to persist. What makes these communities powerful isn’t just access to information, but the empathy that flows through them.

This week, with AI (artificial intelligence) increasingly positioned as a solution in student support, we focus on the principle of human first and technology enabled—the approach that makes student success sustainable. AI should be used to clear barriers and simplify tasks, while people provide the connection that drives persistence. A peer can offer reassurance, encouragement, and shared experience, things no automated system can truly provide. If we trade away human interaction for efficiency, we risk losing the very empathy that keeps students engaged and moving toward completion. Let’s dive in.

The Role of AI in Student Support

AI has emerged as a powerful tool in higher education, especially in student support. Its clearest strengths today are in administrative and logistical areas, where clarity and speed matter most. Need to know when tuition is due, how to reset a password, or what a syllabus policy means? AI can provide the answer instantly.

The promise of automation is appealing: remove friction, answer repetitive questions quickly, and allow staff and faculty to spend more time on high-touch interactions. In this way, AI has the potential to enhance the student experience when used in the right context.

But efficiency alone is not enough. Quick answers may resolve a task, but they cannot provide the belonging, encouragement, and human connection that come only from peers. And those human moments are what help students push past doubt, stay engaged, and ultimately finish what they started. Automation should make space for empathy, not replace it.

The Human Difference

AI is built to deliver the right answer. A peer brings empathy by understanding the lived experience behind the question, from moments of struggle to moments of success. When a student says, “I am overwhelmed and not sure I belong here,” AI might respond with a polite, reassuring phrase, but it cannot draw on the reality of having faced those same doubts. A peer, on the other hand, can say, “I felt that, too, and here’s how I made it through.”

That difference matters. AI creates convenience, but it is human empathy that creates resilience. The danger lies in letting automation take over the very spaces where belonging and encouragement should thrive. When institutions chase efficiency without protecting human connection, they risk leaving students with fast answers but no lasting support.

What Empathy Looks Like in Online Learning

You can see the power of empathy in the stories unfolding inside digital communities. These are not just places to get information; they are environments where students encourage one another, share lived experiences, and build a sense of belonging that carries them forward.

At the University of North Texas (UNT), leaders recognized that online students needed more than access to information. They needed a space to support one another and to share the doubts and victories that come with balancing life and learning. The result was the Talon-to-Talon peer community. Within its first year, students who engaged in the community persisted at a rate 13% higher than their peers. That improvement came from students realizing they weren’t alone, and that others had walked the same path before them.

At Rio Salado College, the impact of empathy appeared almost immediately. Within six weeks of launching the RioConnect community, students who participated reported a 40% higher sense of belonging and a 14% increase in peer connectedness compared to students who never used the platform. These gains came not from speed, but from encouragement and validation—peers reminding one another that their struggles were shared.

And at Indiana University, the power of community extended beyond academics. In their online space, students offered one another tips about classes and deadlines, but they also swapped crockpot recipes, traded weekend plans, and celebrated small personal victories. These everyday exchanges carried extraordinary weight. They reminded students that they were whole people — not just learners isolated behind a screen — and that they belonged to a community that cared about their lives inside and outside the classroom. AI can provide information, but it cannot share a personally tested crockpot recipe, laugh with you about balancing work and childcare, or feel the pride behind a heartfelt “congratulations” when you celebrate being the first in your family to graduate.

Together, these stories show that empathy is more than sentiment. Students feel it in the encouragement of their peers, and its impact is visible in stronger persistence and deeper belonging.

Connection That Drives Success

AI plays an important role in reducing friction for students. It makes it easier to get quick answers and remove common barriers. Communities, however, do something different: they create belonging. They give students a place to be encouraged, to share struggles, and to celebrate milestones together.

Both forms of support matter, but they are not interchangeable. AI offers efficiency. People offer empathy. And it is that empathy that helps students believe they belong, which is essential for persistence and completion.

This is why the role of automation in higher education must be carefully balanced. When student support is human first and technology enabled, students get the best of both: quick access to information, and the authentic connection that sustains them through challenges.

In the end, empathy, the real, human kind, is what transforms information into confidence and belonging. It is the moment a student realizes, “I belong here,” that keeps them moving forward, even when times get tough. That is why the future of student success must be human first and technology enabled.

Up Next: Designing Digital Communities

In our next post, we will move from why to how. We will share practical tips for designing digital communities that foster empathy, build trust, and help students succeed at scale.