Stephanie Hughes

What laws are there that regulate how the government can buy, collect, or use any of this data?

That's Jeremy Scott at the Electronic Privacy Information Center.

Jesus Alvarado produced this episode.

I'm Stephanie Hughes, and that's Marketplace Talk.

This is APM.

This isn't about quarterly earnings or about tech reviews.

Some high school students use AI to kick off their college searches, saying, hey, I want to school with a good civil engineering program and an even better football team.

And the AI will spit out a list of colleges.

Other times, high schoolers are asking very targeted questions.

Michael Koppenheffer is a co-author on that EAB study.

He says kids are turning to AI because it makes the whole exhausting college search process easier.

He says colleges have to pay attention to how they appear in these AI responses.

It's like SEO, but instead of getting noticed by a search engine, they have to get noticed by an AI.

Koppenheffer says colleges also have to work on their digital presence.

Make sure everything about the school is up to date and accurate.

Otherwise, the AIs could surface old information.

It can also be expensive.

Nick Swisher is vice president for brand and marketing at Indiana Wesleyan University, a private college in central Indiana.

The school is spending about half a million dollars annually on its AI influencing efforts.

That's about 10% of the marketing budget.