New Everspring Research Reveals the Impact of AI Invisibility on Enrollment

Showing up in AI answers isn’t a marketing edge. It’s the new table stakes.

CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Everspring today released the 2025 AI Search Trends: Enrollment Impact Brief, a powerful follow-up to its sector-defining 2025 AI Search Trends Report. The verdict: if your programs aren’t named in AI answers, you’re missing the most efficient pipeline in higher ed, and paying more to chase what you’ve already lost. Everspring’s research analyzed nearly 100,000 leads across multiple marketing channels, concluding that inquiries driven by AI discovery and AI-disrupted organic search convert to applicants at 2-to-3 times the rate of inquiries driven by paid search.

“We are opening a new chapter in marketing in higher education. AI has rewritten the rules of discovery, such that if your programs don’t appear inside the AI summaries at the top of search results, you’re invisible to the students most likely to apply,” said Beth Hollenberg, CEO of Everspring.

“This isn’t just a marketing challenge” added Michael Bell, Everspring’s Chief Marketing Officer, “it’s an enrollment strategy problem. Marketing and enrollment leaders are claiming visibility at the heart of where applicant decisions are made—in AI Overviews and ChatGPT—and using paid search as a secondary tool to scale what works.”

What’s inside the Enrollment Impact Brief

• Conversion signals that matter now — which channels actually produce applicants, not just leads.
• The new channel math for enrollment — what happens to application starts when AI and organic visibility slips.
• Insights on emerging trends in admissions — how AI-shaped research shows up in conversations with advisors.
• The playbook for being answer-worthy — how to earn placement inside AI Overviews and AI tools with answer-first, structured content.

Key findings

• Be in AI answers or be ignored. Programs named in AI Overviews drive the strongest organic application flow.
• AI-driven leads convert at higher rates. ChatGPT/Perplexity inquiries convert to application starts at rates near organic and clearly above most paid.
• Paid search still delivers results when paired with a strong AI and organic search strategy. Paid performs best when it builds on strong AI and organic visibility to accelerate capture, fill seasonal gaps, test messages, and win competitive intercepts.
• AI is reorganizing brand power and reshuffling the competition. AI answers favor content with the best match and the best optimization (technical configuration and content that is responsive to answer generation), not just the biggest brand or highest ranking program.

The findings included in this report build on Everspring’s first 2025 report, which documented how generative AI is collapsing the traditional search journey and pushing universities out of view, raising costs while throttling visibility.

Why this matters

Applicants are making decisions faster, earlier, and their expectations are increasingly being shaped by AI. The universities and programs that surface clearly “inside” of answers delivered by AI are capturing higher-intent inquiries that convert to applications two to three times more efficiently than inquiries generated through other channels. Everyone who does not have a strong AI strategy and effective technical AI approach is paying the “AI invisibility” tax.

The full 2025 Everspring AI Search Trends Report is available at: www.everspringpartners.com/2025-ai-trends-enrollment-impact

To learn more about Everspring’s AI Search Solution, visit: https://www.everspringpartners.com/solutions/digital-marketing/ai-search

About Everspring

Everspring is a digital and AI-enablement company that provides managed services to help colleges and universities target their highest-impact growth levers, solve urgent challenges, and capture market opportunity. The first partner in higher ed to stand up a full AI Search Strategy with live placements across AI platforms and Google’s AI Overviews, Everspring ensures programs show up where decisions happen and enrollments follow.

Contact us to learn more.