Solicitation of Interest - AI Advising -.pdf

SUNY Solicitation of Interest: AI Advising Tools

Overview The State University of New York (SUNY) is a system of public colleges and universities in the State of New York. It is the largest comprehensive system of universities, colleges, and community colleges in the United States. SUNY spans 64 campuses throughout the state, educating approximately 380,000 students in more than 7,500 degree and certificate programs.

This Solicitation of Interest (SOI) seeks to help SUNY understand the capabilities of closed system AI advising platforms maintaining strict control over internal data access and usage to safeguard sensitive information for higher education and to identify organizations with AI advising platforms who may be interested in working with SUNY to develop and deploy an AI-based advising solution across the SUNY System. SUNY is launching an AI-based advising pilot during the 2025-26 academic year, which will inform future efforts to scale one or more AI-based advising platforms, in collaboration with faculty and campus administrators, System-wide. The AI advising platform will offer personalized, real-time academic and career guidance to students. It must be accessible on a 24X7 basis and offer scalable, barrier-free assistance to help students achieve their educational goals.

At implementation, the AI advising platform will integrate with campus student information systems, degree planning tools, and any other technology solutions the campus may want to leverage to support academic advising. The AI-based advising platform will be trained and deployed to answer student questions including but not limited to about:

• courses needed for their current or intended program of study,

• access to tutoring and other academic supports,

• how to access financial aid information/complete the FAFSA,

• access to basic needs and other non-academic supports,

• transfer opportunities,

• career services, and

• other questions that have a direct relationship to on-time completion and post-completion positive outcomes (e.g., wages).

Other use cases may also be enabled based on individual campus goals and initiatives.

Project Outcomes Once implemented, the project is intended to achieve the following outcomes:

For Students:

- Immediate responses to basic advising questions

- Faster access to advising personnel for more complex advising questions

- Better informed academic and career decisions

- Shortened time to and higher rates of degree/program completion

For Campuses:

- Increased retention

- Increased graduation rates

- Data insights for advisors and campus administrators to inform resource allocation and decisions about advising interventions

AI Advising Platform System Requirements:

1. A solution would have the capacity to provide access to AI-based advising assistance for students enrolled at any SUNY campus. While we expect to begin with a more limited pilot project at one or more campuses, the desired solutions must be capable of scaling to accommodate usage and volume of the SUNY System without degradation in performance.

2. The AI advising platform will provide personalized advising support based on campus curriculum and program plans.

3. The AI advising platform will provide timely support within existing student workflows and existing student platforms where appropriate.

4. The AI advising platform will reinforce campus curriculum and approaches to advising and guide students to additional resources as needed.

5. The advising platform will collect and analyze data on student interactions to provide insights on student trends for advisors and campus administrators.

6. The AI advising platform will integrate with campus student information systems, degree planning tools, and any other technology solutions a campus wishes to leverage to support academic advising.

7. The AI advising platform must have a clear sustainability component outlining funding, staffing, and technical resources necessary for long-term operation and maintenance.

8. A solution must comply with all applicable laws (including Section 103-E of the New York State Technology Law), regulations, and SUNY policies (including Policy 6901 and Policy 6900) concerning AI, EIT accessibility, data transfer, data privacy, and security. Systems must have client separation and the inclusion of human oversight. In addition, solutions must certify that SUNY data will not be used, accessed, processed, or stored for any purposes beyond providing the specifically identified services to SUNY regardless of de-identification or aggregation, without explicit authorization by SUNY, and that SUNY encryption requirements are met.

Please note that this project will be conducted in coordination with a wide range of shared governance stakeholders, including students, faculty, staff, and campus administrators.

This advertisement is not a guarantee or promise of funding or future procurement opportunity.

Please note this is solely a Solicitation of Interest and does not guarantee an award or contract.

https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/laws/STT/103-E https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/laws/STT/103-E https://www.suny.edu/sunypp/documents.cfm?doc_id=883 https://security.suny.edu/media/Security/6900-Information-Security-Policy.pdf

How to Respond To indicate interest in and eligibility to provide these services, please submit a letter of interest of not more than five (5) pages describing the Responding Vendor’s proficiency, experience in meeting the stated requirements, and proposed approach. The document must be submitted via email to AIAdvising@suny.edu no later than Monday, September 15, 2025 at 4:00pm Eastern Standard Time.

mailto:AIAdvising@suny.edu