AI Search in Higher Ed: Paula French at Harvard PLL Lunch & Learn
July 14th, 2026 by
Harvard’s Professional & Lifelong Learning community invited Search Influence to talk through what AI search means for enrollment. Here’s what Paula French shared.
If you work in online or continuing education, you already feel it: prospective students are forming opinions about your programs before they ever reach your website. They’re asking AI tools which program fits, comparing options, and building short lists in spaces your analytics never see. It’s the challenge every enrollment team is now navigating, and it’s the topic Harvard’s Professional & Lifelong Learning community asked Search Influence Director of Sales and Marketing Paula French to present on at a Lunch & Learn earlier this spring.
A Conversation Inside the Harvard Ecosystem
Harvard’s Professional & Lifelong Learning community brings together the teams behind the University’s professional and continuing education programs. French was asked to walk them through what AI search means for enrollment. Search Influence already works inside that ecosystem as the digital marketing partner for the Program on Negotiation (PON) at Harvard Law School, and our higher education work spans institutions like the Tulane School of Professional Advancement and Tufts University College. That range gave the discussion real examples to draw on.
What AI Search Means for Your Enrollment Funnel
The shift isn’t theoretical. Search Influence and UPCEA’s research study, AI Search in Higher Education: How Prospects Search in 2025, found that half of prospective students now use AI tools as part of their research, 79% read Google’s AI Overviews, and 56% are more likely to trust institutions that appear as AI-cited sources. Traditional search still leads at 84%, but AI tools now do something search alone never did: they help students narrow their options and decide. If your programs aren’t surfacing in those answers, you may be missing the consideration set entirely.
About the Session
Winning AI Search was presented as part of Harvard Professional & Lifelong Learning’s Lunch & Learn series. French joined Search Influence in 2009, when it was a nine-person team, and has spent her career helping higher education institutions connect digital marketing strategy to how prospective students actually search, with presentations at UPCEA and the AMA Symposium for the Marketing of Higher Education.
Curious what AI search visibility could look like for your programs? Contact Search Influence to start the conversation.
