AI Search Student Experience and Prompts

How Students Access AI Search

AI Search is built directly into your VCC — students don't need to navigate anywhere new to find it. The search panel replaces the previous keyword search bar and is accessible from anywhere on the platform. Students can open it intentionally by clicking on an magnifying glass icon button, in the bottom right corner of your platform, or they can simply start typing a question into the main search field and AI Search takes over immediately.

Asking a Question

Students type questions in natural language — no special syntax, keywords, or Boolean operators needed. The experience is designed to feel like asking a question to a knowledgeable friend, not querying a database.

Here are some examples of the kinds of questions students might ask:

• "What internships are posted that align with my interest in public health?"
• "What resources do you have to help me prepare for a case interview?"
• "I'm a first-generation student — are there specific programs or mentors for me?"
• "What careers can I pursue with an environmental science degree?"
• "How do I connect with alumni in the finance industry?"

AI Search understands the intent behind the question — not just the individual words — so even imprecisely worded questions typically surface relevant content.

Sample Questions to Get You Started

Not sure what to ask? We've put together a reference library of sample natural-language questions organized by stakeholder group — so you can see exactly the kinds of conversations AI Search can support once your outcomes data is uploaded.

The library covers six common audiences your career center serves:

• Current Students — exploring majors, salaries, employers, grad school, and location outcomes
• Prospective Students & Families — evaluating ROI and institutional outcomes before enrolling
• Academic Advisors — guiding major selection and course planning conversations with real data
• Career Coaches — personalizing coaching sessions with employer, salary, and internship insights
• Employers — assessing graduate pipeline fit and benchmarking salaries
• Senior Leaders — tracking placement rates, trends, and building the institution's ROI narrative

Use this library to train staff, spark ideas for how different audiences might engage with AI Search, or simply get a feel for the breadth of questions your outcomes data can answer.

📎 FDS Natural-Language Query Library

What the Results Look Like

After a student submits a question, the panel displays a natural-language response followed by the source content that informed it. Every response includes citations — direct links to the exact pages, resources, events, or job listings that AI Search used. Students can see exactly where the information came from and click through to the original content.

Results can include any content type that is published and indexed on your VCC:

• Blog posts
• Resources 
• Events 
• Classes 
• Experiences 
• Job and internship postings (including Handshake, Symplicity, and 12Twenty integrations)
• Community pages
• Video content
• Outcomes data

Up to approximately 5 results are returned per query. The agent sees up to 15 and chooses from among the results, factoring in past chat history (its “memory”) and the user’s preferences/tags. Rather than surfacing everything that is remotely related, AI Search is designed to prioritize quality and relevance — fewer, better results over an overwhelming list.

Suggested Prompts

When a student opens the AI Search panel, they'll see a set of suggested prompts — pre-written question starters designed to help students discover resources they might not have thought to ask about. These prompts are curated to align with your institution's enabled modules and can be configured by admin users.

The settings for these prompts, among other things, are under the Customize>Settings>AI Search area of the admin dashboard:

Suggested prompts are especially useful for students who are new to the platform or unsure where to start. They serve as an on-ramp to exploring everything your career center has to offer.

Guest vs. Logged-In Experience

Students can access AI Search without logging in, but the experience is intentionally limited for guests to encourage authentication:

Login uses the same credentials students already use to access your VCC — no new account is required.

What Happens When There's No Match

If a student asks about something that isn't covered by your VCC's content, AI Search handles it gracefully. Rather than fabricating an answer or returning an error screen, it acknowledges that it couldn't find a relevant result and encourages the student to reach out to career services directly for more guidance.

This is an important design choice: accuracy and trust are at the core of how AI Search operates. It will never make something up.

Why Encouraging Login Matters

Encouraging students to log in before using AI Search has meaningful downstream benefits for your career center:

• Better results for students — personalization means the content they see is more relevant to who they are and where they are in their career journey.
• Better data for you — logged-in activity is tracked and contributes to Engagement Scores, giving your team visibility into how students are engaging with your platform.
• Content visibility — students who are not authenticated will not see content that is protected behind a login wall, even if it would be helpful to them.