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Key Points
- Gonzaga University is using AI agents to identify potential future students, as well as connect with them in more engaging ways, Chief Information Security Officer Darren Owsley told TheCube at World of Workato.
- Key to Gonzaga's success is its partnership with Workato and the ability to quickly deploy AI agents to “do more with less” and “focus on the experience,” Darren said.
- Darren and his team started in their own department with an IT Genie to automate common tasks: “Quickly what we found was everyone was so excited, the scope bursted," he said.
More than just about improving employee productivity and streamlining operations, AI agents can help organizations deliver more personalized experiences to increasingly tailored audiences.
At Gonzaga University, AI agents are overhauling recruitment efforts, according to Chief Information Security Officer Darren Owsley. The technology is helping the institution better identify potential applicants, as well as connect with them in more engaging ways. It’s just one example of how AI agents can transform the ways Gonzaga University and other colleges communicate with all their stakeholders: future students, current enrollees, and alumni.
A big challenge is “how can we recruit students that fit our Gonzaga model, interact and get them to see the benefits of coming to Gonzaga?,” he told TheCube at the recent World of Workato.
Gonzaga kick-started its AI journey in the IT department. Darren, who also services as deputy chief information officer, brought together a diverse team, including students, and security and business analysts. They built an IT Genie that automates routine tasks, like password resets and ticketing.
“We wanted to eat our own dog food,” he said. “Quickly what we found was everyone was so excited, the scope bursted.”
But while enthusiasm for AI is high among both the faculty and student body, the road to adoption wasn’t seamless. Like other institutions, Gonzaga University saw its IT environment balloon into the hundreds of applications during and after the Covid-19 pandemic.
“We wanted to eat our own dog food ... quickly what we found was everyone was so excited, the scope bursted.”
The institution’s past integration platform couldn’t handle the growing scale and complexity. And increasingly, Gonzaga wanted to automate more of its internal processes, and needed a more capable foundation that could integrate all the different systems.
That’s when Darren and the team started working with Workato. Now, Gonzaga is utilizing the platform to deploy agentic AI to “do more with less” and “focus on the experience,” according to Darren.
Darren’s one piece of advice for other CIOs? “Data is key to this. If the data is not clean, you are going to struggle,” he said.
Check out the full interview from WoW.
