Tech-Neill-ogy #129 - 29 March 2026

Your Weekly Guide to Leveraging Technology in College Counseling

Author

Jeffrey Neill
March 30, 2026

In partnership with

Welcome to Tech-Neill-ogy #129!

A couple weeks off… lots of weekend activies these past few weeks, which ganged up on me a little bit. We’ve gotten to that point in the year that I refer to as the “downhill sprint.” In any case, I’ll cut right to it. Enjoy this week’s newsletter!

88% resolved. 22% stayed loyal. What went wrong?

That's the AI paradox hiding in your CX stack. Tickets close. Customers leave. And most teams don't see it coming because they're measuring the wrong things.

Efficiency metrics look great on paper. Handle time down. Containment rate up. But customer loyalty? That's a different story — and it's one your current dashboards probably aren't telling you.

Gladly's 2026 Customer Expectations Report surveyed thousands of real consumers to find out exactly where AI-powered service breaks trust, and what separates the platforms that drive retention from the ones that quietly erode it.

If you're architecting the CX stack, this is the data you need to build it right. Not just fast. Not just cheap. Built to last.

Learn how to code faster with AI in 5 mins a day

You're spending 40 hours a week writing code that AI could do in 10.

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How?

The Code newsletter teaches them exactly which AI tools to use and how to use them.

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Do Grades Make Sense In The AI Era?

When it comes to writing assignments, AI has exacerbated many existing problems, argues one educator.

www.techlearning.com/technology/ai/do-grades-make-sense-in-the-ai-era

From Apprehension To Empowerment: Creating A Four-Part AI Education PD Series

Innovative Leader Award - Courtney Bock shares how she created her AI PD program that helps educators understand the basics so they can implement it in their instruction.

www.techlearning.com/technology/ai/from-apprehension-to-empowerment-creating-a-four-part-ai-education-pd-series

The AI 'hivemind': Why so many student essays sound alike

A study of more than 70 large language models found similar answers to brainstorming and creative writing prompts

hechingerreport.org/proof-points-ai-similarity

Human Judgment Still Matters in an Era of AI-Powered Data Analysis

Human judgment is a critical factor in making data-informed learning decisions.

www.techlearning.com/technology/ai/human-judgment-still-matters-in-an-era-of-ai-powered-data-analysis

AI Is Getting Smarter. Humans Need These Skills ⚡

Plus . . . a peek inside famous inboxes

danielpink.substack.com/p/6-human-skills-ai-still-cant-replace

ScholarAI - Find Your Perfect Scholarship

Find scholarships that match your profile and CGPA

scholar-ai.tech

Automatically convert audio to text | Sonix

Our online service makes transcribing and editing audio fast, easy, and affordable. Try it out today.

sonix.ai

Get exclusive insights from 6,000+ applications that worked.

Discover how students got into your dream school. Find out how college students—with activities and stats just like yours—wrote their apps.

admityogi.com

Sups | AI College Application Help

Ethical AI for College Admissions. Sups is your AI college admissions tutor — organize, outline, and optimize your college applications.

www.sups.ai

ACT AI Advisor

We built the AI Advisor to put powerful, personalized planning tools directly in the hands of students. It's more than a chatbot. It’s a smart, evolving companion that learns with each interaction and keeps students engaged, informed, and empowered. Powered by smart, intuitive AI, it offers real-time, individualized support tailored to their unique goals, interests, and circumstances. No matter where you're starting from, the AI Advisor helps deliver guidance to anyone with an internet connection.

www.act.org/ai

Go from AI overwhelmed to AI savvy professional

AI will eliminate 300 million jobs in the next 5 years.

Yours doesn't have to be one of them.

Here's how to future-proof your career:

  • Join the Superhuman AI newsletter - read by 1M+ professionals

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https://www.edficacy.co/ - Tell them Jeff sent you!

This is a fun one… 

Pretend you are a polymath with mastery in philosophy, science, economics, psychology, and history. Reveal 10 pieces of knowledge about (INSERT TOPIC) that only the top 0.01% of experts understand, insights so rare that most people don’t even know they exist. Explain them simply but deeply.

Check out this output from this prompt on “high school college counseling”!

Please, if you have any great prompts or ideas, please share! Send me a note at [email protected].

Webinars & Live Events Page

Look here for upcoming webinars and other events (and recorded ones) by the College Essay Guy! New events are happening all the time…

www.collegeessayguy.com/webinars-live-events

I don’t think I’ve shared this article previously, but apologies if I have… for this week’s non-tech articles, check this out:

The Harvard of the South … Of the West?

Elite universities are taking the concept of a satellite campus to its logical extreme.

www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/02/satellite-campus-expansion-vanderbilt/686032

Happy counseling!

Jeff