The DXP Catalyst Update - Mar 4, 2025

INTRO
Welcome to This Week’s DXP Catalyst Update

In this edition, I explore the role of AI-powered search in higher education. As universities manage sprawling digital ecosystems, ensuring access to information is a growing challenge. I’ll examine how AI-driven search technologies enhance digital discovery for students, faculty, and staff - streamlining navigation, improving engagement, and unifying content across disparate systems.

This newsletter breaks down the landscape of AI-powered search, its impact on digital experience strategy, and key considerations for implementation in higher education.

INDUSTRY & LEADERSHIP GUIDANCE
AI-Powered Search in Higher Ed: Optimizing Digital Discovery

Universities operate within complex digital environments, often spanning hundreds of domains, subdomains, and third-party platforms - from faculty pages and research hubs to student portals and course catalogs. Traditional search functionality struggles to keep pace, leading to fragmented experiences, outdated content, and frustrated users.

AI-driven search solutions address these challenges by delivering contextualized, personalized results that go beyond basic keyword matching. These technologies help higher ed institutions:

• Unify content from multiple platforms for a seamless experience

• Enhance relevance by understanding user intent and behavior

• Improve accessibility to critical information, from admissions details to research funding opportunities

By leveraging AI-driven search capabilities, including machine learning-powered ranking, universities can create intuitive, dynamic search experiences that empower students and faculty to find what they need - when they need it.

The Challenge of Digital Discovery in Higher Ed

Unlike corporate websites, a university’s online presence is vast and decentralized, with disconnected systems spread across multiple schools, departments, and other entities. This fragmentation is somewhat comparable to the public sector, where disparate content and systems create similar challenges. As a result, students searching for admissions details may encounter conflicting information, while faculty navigating internal policies often struggle with scattered and inconsistent documentation.

AI-powered search tools help unify these ecosystems, ensuring users receive relevant, up-to-date results regardless of where content resides. While generative AI platforms like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity are transforming information retrieval broadly, this edition focuses on AI-driven search solutions that enhance discoverability within higher education’s websites, portals, and content repositories.

In the next section, we’ll explore key AI search technologies that help universities create a more seamless, intelligent search experience - improving access to critical information for students, faculty, and staff.

Funnelback: Optimized for Large, Complex Ecosystems

Funnelback, a search and insights platform now part of the Squiz DXP, is particularly well-suited for higher education institutions managing expansive and complex digital environments. What sets Funnelback apart is its ability to index large ecosystems seamlessly - a critical need for universities dealing with hundreds of subdomains and independent websites.

Key advantages of Funnelback include:

• URL-Based Indexing Across Multiple Domains: Universities often maintain separate sites and systems for admissions, academics, student services, and research. Funnelback simplifies content aggregation by allowing institutions to index any site simply by providing a URL, ensuring seamless access to up-to-date information across the university’s digital experience.

• Scalability for Large Digital Ecosystems: Designed to handle hundreds of subdomains and siloed platforms, Funnelback enables institutions to unify content across distributed systems without extensive manual effort.

• AI-Powered Relevance Tuning: Funnelback uses machine learning models to rank search results dynamically, improving over time based on user behavior and feedback.

• Customizable Search Interfaces: Higher ed institutions can configure Funnelback’s UI to match their brand and optimize user experience across both web and mobile platforms.

• Advanced Insights and Analytics: Administrators gain valuable insights into what users are searching for within the university’s digital experience, helping to refine content strategy and eliminate gaps.

Use Case: A university leveraging Funnelback can unify search across its web and mobile platforms, integrating content from admissions, course catalogs, and faculty research pages. For example, if a student searches for “computer science program requirements,” they’ll receive results from all indexed sources - department pages, course descriptions, and admissions guidelines - without manually navigating multiple sites.

This is a common challenge in higher ed, where flagship university sites often fail to surface relevant content from “child” sites, such as individual schools or departments. Conversely, a business school site may not easily pull in critical information from the university’s main admissions site, flagship site, or other related sources. AI-powered search bridges these gaps, ensuring users can seamlessly discover the information they need, regardless of where it resides. In some cases, users find it easier to bypass university websites altogether and turn to Google or tools like Perplexity to locate the information they need.

Coveo: AI-Driven Personalization & Engagement

While Funnelback specializes in indexing vast, complex ecosystems, Coveo differentiates itself with AI-driven personalization and deep analytics that enhance engagement and deliver user-specific results.

Key features of Coveo:

• AI-Powered Search & Personalization: Uses machine learning to refine search rankings based on user interactions within the university’s digital environment, delivering highly relevant results tailored to different users.

• Context-Aware Personalization: Coveo personalizes search experiences based on a user’s previous behavior, their role (student, faculty, staff, etc.), and inferred interests, automatically adjusting results to be more relevant.

• Real-Time Query Suggestions & Auto-Completion: Predicts what users are looking for and provides instant recommendations as they type.

• Unified Search Across Multiple Systems: Can index content from multiple sources, including CMS platforms, student portals, knowledge bases, and intranets, ensuring seamless discovery.

• Integration with Learning Management Systems (LMS): Universities can integrate Coveo into platforms like Blackboard or Canvas to enhance content discoverability within course materials.

• Deep Analytics for Content Optimization: Provides universities with detailed insights into how users search and interact with content, allowing institutions to fine-tune their digital experience strategies.

Use Case: A university using Coveo could create an intelligent search experience across student portals, LMS platforms, and faculty intranets. If a student searches for “summer internship programs,” Coveo’s AI could personalize results based on their enrolled major, past search behavior, and recommended career resources.

The AI Advantage: How These Search Tools Improve the Digital Experience

Both Funnelback and Coveo leverage AI in ways that significantly enhance information discovery for students and faculty within university websites, portals, and mobile applications:

1. Context-Aware Results

AI-powered search engines understand intent beyond just matching keywords. For example, when a student searches "scholarships for international students," an intelligent search tool will surface not only general scholarship pages but also eligibility criteria and application deadlines tailored to international applicants within the university’s web and mobile ecosystem.

2. Dynamic Personalization

By learning from user behavior, these search engines can offer personalized results within a university’s digital experience. If a faculty member frequently searches for grant applications, the system prioritizes similar content in future searches across web and mobile platforms.

3. Voice & Conversational Search

With the rise of mobile-first interactions, AI-powered search can process natural language queries (i.e. "What’s the deadline for fall admissions?") and return structured, relevant results within the university’s website and apps.

4. Automated Content Tagging & Categorization

Instead of relying on manual tagging, AI can classify and categorize content dynamically, improving search accuracy and ensuring that outdated information is automatically deprioritized across the digital experience.

5. Search Analytics & Optimization

Universities can analyze search trends to identify gaps in their content strategy. If students frequently search for “mental health support” but struggle to find relevant pages, administrators can use this insight to improve web and mobile information architecture.

The Future of AI-Powered Search in Higher Ed Digital Experiences

AI-powered search solutions are transforming how universities deliver information across their digital platforms. As higher education institutions continue to expand their web and mobile ecosystems, intelligent search will be critical in bridging content silos, enhancing student experiences, and improving operational efficiency.

While solutions like Funnelback and Coveo offer different advantages, they share a common goal - delivering seamless, relevant, and intelligent content discovery within higher education’s digital ecosystem. Whether students are searching for course descriptions, faculty research, or campus events, AI-powered search tools ensure they find exactly what they need quickly and intuitively.

For institutions aiming to stay ahead, investing in AI-enhanced search is no longer a nice-to-have - it’s essential for delivering the next generation of digital experiences. Higher education’s fragmented CMS and platform ecosystems often create barriers to effective content discovery, but AI-powered search tools provide a practical, near-term solution to unify these silos. By improving accessibility and relevance across websites, portals, and internal systems, these tools empower institutions to meet the evolving expectations of students, faculty, and staff while laying the groundwork for long-term digital transformation.

Final Thoughts

As higher education continues to evolve in a digital-first world, the role of AI-powered search will only grow in importance. Universities are complex ecosystems that must cater to diverse audiences with equally diverse needs. By investing in tools like Funnelback and Coveo, institutions can break down content silos, deliver personalized experiences, and ensure that their digital platforms are as innovative as their academic programs.

AI-powered search isn’t just about technology - it’s about creating meaningful connections between people and information. Implementing intelligent search solutions not only improves operational efficiency but also strengthens relationships with students, faculty, and staff by making their digital interactions seamless and impactful.