AI HE Marketing Conference 2026
The AI HE Marketing Conference 2026 brings higher education marketing, digital and student recruitment teams together to explore how AI can improve campaign delivery, applicant engagement and marketing performance.
Across one practical, innovation-led day, discover how universities are responding as prospective students use AI to find and compare their options, building better workflows and creating more relevant recruitment journeys. Gain tested ideas for using new tools responsibly while protecting accuracy, authenticity and the human connection behind every university choice.
The Conference will explore practical strategies for:
- Responding to how prospective students now use AI to discover, question and compare universities
- Using AI across campaign planning, content creation, insight, reporting and marketing automation
- Building personalised, conversational and connected applicant journeys
- Improving visibility across generative search while protecting institutional distinctiveness
- Establishing responsible governance, staff capability and meaningful measures of impact
Context
Why Now?
Applicants increasingly use AI to ask questions, compare courses and create shortlists before they reach a university website.
Prospective students expect immediate, relevant and personalised information across every channel and stage of their journey.
AI offers genuine capacity and performance gains, but only when tools are connected to clear problems and well-designed workflows.
Accuracy, consumer protection, data use and transparency must keep pace as AI moves into public-facing marketing activity.
What to Expect
Why attend the conference?
Explore how higher education teams are applying AI across search, content, CRM, personalisation, engagement and campaign insight—and what effective delivery looks like in practice
Gain practical approaches for improving productivity and performance without losing institutional voice, trusted information or meaningful human contact
Build a realistic roadmap for developing skills, governance and repeatable workflows that turn AI experimentation into sustained marketing value
Innovation in Practice
AI Across the Marketing Function
Explore where AI can strengthen discovery, delivery and engagement—and how marketing teams can translate capability into better audience outcomes.
AI-mediated discovery
Clear, structured and authoritative content can help universities remain visible when applicants use AI tools to research and compare their options.
Audience and market insight
AI can help teams interpret changing demand, spot emerging behaviour and bring different evidence together to support sharper campaign decisions.
Relevant student journeys
Better use of CRM and behavioural data can make communications more timely, useful and responsive to each applicant’s interests and stage.
Conversational engagement
Grounded AI assistants can extend access to information, resolve routine questions and connect prospective students with people when it matters.
Reputation and sentiment monitoring
AI can help teams identify emerging themes across public conversations, media coverage and stakeholder feedback, supporting earlier response and more informed communications planning.
Smarter marketing operations
Repeatable workflows can reduce low-value administration and give teams more time for strategy, creativity, collaboration and audience understanding.
Turn AI into Practical Marketing Advantage
Explore proven ideas, build stronger workflows and prepare for the next applicant journey.
Programme
Conference Agenda
Chair’s Opening Address
The AI-mediated Applicant Journey: How Discovery and Decision-making Are Changing
- How prospective students use AI to ask questions, compare courses and narrow choices
- Where AI now influences the recruitment journey—and where official information and human guidance remain decisive
- What applicants expect from personalised, immediate and trustworthy university information
- Practical priorities for adapting content, guidance and conversion activity around changing behaviour
Making Your University Discoverable in AI Search
- How generative search and AI-generated answers are reshaping university and course discovery
- Why clear course information matters more than ever
- The role of trusted source data, consistent information and content governance in helping search tools understand—and cite—your institution accurately
- What AI visibility measures add to the traditional search picture without drawing teams into every platform shift
Break and Networking
From Documents to Data: Becoming Experience Engineers
Content professionals have spent years thinking in pages, posts and documents. But increasingly, our work needs to function as structured data that can travel across websites, search, AI systems and personalised experiences. Tracy Playle explores what this shift means for the profession, and why tomorrow’s content specialists may need to think more like data architects and experience engineers, designing connected information systems rather than simply creating content.
How Do we Protect Voice and Authenticity?
- As automated tools shape more audience interactions, how can a university still sound unmistakably like itself?
- Explore the role of lived student experience and staff expertise in keeping the institutional story credible and distinctive
- Assess how clear principles and thoughtful human judgement can protect trust across channels
- Where should teams draw the line between useful automation and moments needing a personal voice?
From Segments to Bespoke Journeys: Personalisation with AI, Data and Automation
- How applicant expectations for timely, tailored information are reshaping segmentation and communication planning
- Where behavioural, enquiry and CRM data can reveal what a prospective student needs next
- The point at which useful personalisation begins to feel intrusive or over-engineered
- What a realistic first bespoke journey looks like while data quality, consent and team capacity are still developing
Lunch Break
Connecting the Digital Journey from First Visit to Enrolment
- How can universities make it easier for prospective students to move from discovering a course to taking the next step?
- Explore how useful content, clear pathways and timely follow-up can create a more connected experience across channels
- Use behaviour and enquiry insights to spot where students lose momentum and where a more relevant response could help
- What should teams measure to improve the journey while keeping the experience personal and straightforward?
Measuring the Impact of AI-enabled Marketing
- Which outcomes reveal genuine value: stronger engagement, better campaign performance, lower cost or released team capacity?
- Explore how campaign evidence can distinguish meaningful improvement from simply producing more activity
- Assess how HE teams can connect experimentation to wider marketing priorities and build confidence in future investment decisions
Break and Networking
Building an AI-ready Marketing Function: What Should Teams Do Next?
- Which AI capabilities will HE marketing teams need most over the next two years—and where should leaders invest first?
- How can institutions turn isolated experiments into a coherent roadmap while protecting trust, distinctiveness and human connection?
- What decisions should every marketing leader take back to their institution after today?
Conference Close
Ready to Put AI into Practice?
Join HE colleagues sharing practical innovation, evidence and lessons from delivery.
Who Should Attend?
Audience
This Conference is designed for higher education marketing, digital, communications and recruitment professionals responsible for attracting, engaging and converting prospective students. Those in attendance will include:
- Directors and Heads of Marketing
- Directors and Heads of Communications
- Student Recruitment and Conversion Leads
- Digital Marketing and Web Managers
- Campaigns and Marketing Managers
- CRM and Marketing Automation Managers
- Content, Brand and Creative Teams
- International Marketing and Recruitment Teams
- Insight, Analytics and Market Research Professionals
- Marketing Officers, Digital Officers and AI Leads
Registration
Secure Your Ticket
HE and Public Sector
£195 + VAT
- Full-day live conference access
- Latest sector insight
- Applied approaches from across HE
- Live chat functionality
- Breakouts and networking
- Access to event resources
Private Sector
£395 + VAT
- Full-day live conference access
- Latest sector insight
- Applied approaches from across HE
- Live chat functionality
- Breakouts and networking
- Access to event resources
HE Team of 3
£526.50 + VAT
- Full-day live access for three delegates
- Latest sector insight
- Applied approaches from across HE
- Live chat functionality
- Breakouts and networking
- Access to event resources
For group discounts and enquiries about your registration please contact us on enquiries@heprofessional.co.uk