Last week, over 8,000 higher ed professionals converged on San Diego for the annual ASU+GSV conference.
If you’ve been before, you know the experience.
At its best, it’s energizing. At its worst, it’s chaotic.
Crowds spilling out of sessions into hallways. A sea of vendors as far as you can see. And a growing number of people who don’t formally attend anything at all - just taking meetings in and around the overflowing hotel lobby.
Somewhere in the middle of that chaos, I had a conversation with a college president that’s stuck with me.
She said something simple, but pointed:
If you walked the floor at ASU+GSV, the innovation was undeniable. There were hundreds of vendors showcasing AI-powered tools across every imaginable part of the student journey - advising, admissions, search, chat, engagement, retention, etc.
But her point wasn’t about the quality of the technology.
It was about where the innovation is actually happening.
Right now, it’s happening at the extremes.
On one end, you have the large, horizontal platforms - like ChatGPT and Claude - foundational technologies that are reshaping what’s possible.
On the other end, you have highly specific, purpose-built tools. Point solutions designed to solve very particular problems with precision.
And in between?
That’s where things get murky.
The enterprise systems that higher ed relies on - CRMs, SIS platforms, LMS providers - largely aren’t where the most interesting innovation is happening today.
And it’s creating a real tension.
Because while the innovation is happening at the edges, the expectation is that institutions will somehow stitch it all together in the middle.
That they’ll walk a conference floor like ASU+GSV, evaluate dozens of vendors, and assemble a coherent, integrated AI strategy across the student journey.
But that’s a pretty big ask.
Because most colleges and universities aren’t built to operate that way.
They’re not resourced to evaluate, implement, and manage a portfolio of highly specialized tools - each solving a different piece of the puzzle.
What they want - understandably - is leverage.
Technology that helps them extend their mission, improve the student experience, and drive better outcomes without introducing overwhelming complexity.
Historically, that’s come from enterprise platforms.
But right now, those platforms aren’t where the innovation is leading.
And I say all this recognizing that I’m part of that dynamic.
At Kanahoma, we’ve been building AI-powered admissions solutions - digital workers designed for specific use cases like cold outbound and re-engagement.
We are, by definition, a point solution.
And this president was right.
The expectation, implicitly, is that institutions will work with us - and a dozen others like us - to cover the full student journey.
Now, maybe that’s just where we are right now.
Early in a cycle where innovation is fragmented before it consolidates.
But it raises an important question:
Do the large incumbents catch up and build these capabilities into their platforms?
Do they acquire their way into it?
Or do institutions begin to develop the internal capacity to orchestrate these solutions themselves?
My instinct is that we’re still a few years away from true consolidation - from enterprise-level solutions that seamlessly span multiple stages of the student lifecycle.
Which leaves institutions in a difficult spot.
Because while the narrative coming out of ASU+GSV is one of acceleration, the operational reality may be the opposite.
When faced with too many options, too much fragmentation, and too much complexity, organizations don’t always move faster.
Sometimes, they move slower.
They wait.
They defer decisions.
And in some cases, they pause on progress entirely.
There will absolutely be successful point solution implementations.
But if point solutions remain the primary vehicle for innovation, adoption is likely to lag behind.
Not because the technology isn’t ready.
But because the burden of stitching it all together is heavier than most institutions are prepared to bear.
That, more than anything else, is what I took away from the week.
- Seth
About The AuthorSeth is the founder and CEO of Kanahoma, a San Diego-based performance marketing agency on a mission to build a better agency for organizations building a better world.
You can learn more about who we are and what we do at www.Kanahoma.com.
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