What AI Actually Is
And what it isn't, for school marketing teams
Most of the school marketers I speak to are using AI in one very specific way. They open ChatGPT, type something in, see what comes back, and either copy it or close the tab.
That's the extent of it.
There's nothing wrong with that. It's where almost everyone starts. But I've noticed it comes loaded with a lot of assumptions about what AI is and what it's for, and most of those assumptions are off.
So I want to try to set the record straight, plainly and without hype, before the industry talks everyone into something more complicated than it needs to be.
I've spent nine years inside independent school marketing. I've watched this industry sell schools tools they didn't need, at prices they couldn't afford, dressed up in language nobody understood. AI is the next thing that's going to be sold to you. I'd rather you had a clear head about it before someone tries.
So what is AI really?
A tool. That's it.
The clearest way I can describe it: AI is a very fast, very tireless member of staff who's brilliant at repetitive admin and terrible at judgement. It reads, summarises, rewrites, and drafts at a speed no human can match. It doesn't think, feel, or care, and pretending otherwise is how people end up disappointed.
When you type into ChatGPT, you're giving that fast, tireless worker a task. The better the brief, the better the output. The vaguer the brief, the more generic the result. If the output feels flat, bland, or soulless, it usually isn't the AI's fault. It's because the instructions it was given were flat, bland, and soulless.
That's the whole thing. Everything else is marketing.
What AI isn't
It isn't coming for your job. It's coming for the boring parts of your job. The parts you'd happily hand over if you trusted the output.
It isn't a replacement for writing. The prose in your prospectus, the tone of your open day emails, the reply you send a parent worrying about their child settling in: these are the moments your school sells belonging. AI can imitate the shape of that writing, but it can't mean it. Parents aren't buying words. They're buying the feeling that someone in your school cares about their child. That feeling has to come from a person.
It isn't a decision-maker. It can read your data and tell you enquiries from one postcode are up this term. It can't tell you whether to move your open day or change your fees. That's your job, and it should be.
And it isn't magic. It will confidently tell you things that are wrong. It needs direction, context, and a human checking the output. If you don't give it those, you get the kind of generic copy that's already flooding the industry and making every school sound the same.
Where AI earns its place
Three areas.
1. Speed on first drafts and admin.
The internal email you've been putting off. The meeting notes from Tuesday. The summary of a 20-page policy document. The FAQ page you've been meaning to write for six months. Paste the raw material in, ask for a plain summary or a first draft, edit what comes back. You will save hours a week this way, and nothing about your school will sound any worse for it, because none of that copy was going to win you a parent in the first place.
2. Making data readable.
This is the one I care about most. Most schools I've worked with are drowning in data they can't use. GA4 is the obvious example, a tool most marketing managers open once, panic, and close. If you paste the numbers into ChatGPT and ask what changed week on week and what it might mean, you'll get further in five minutes than most agencies get in an hour. Same with enquiry spreadsheets, open day sign-up lists, and postcode data. The information has been sitting there the whole time. AI makes it legible.
3. Unblocking when you're stuck.
Not writing for you. Thinking with you. When you're drafting the welcome letter and can't find the angle, ask AI what a worried parent might object to. Ask it for five ways to open the piece. Ask it what you might have missed. Use it to sharpen your thinking, not to replace it. The final words still come from you.
Notice what's missing from that list. Writing your website. Replying to parents. Running your strategy. Making decisions about the future of your school. That's all still you, and it should be.
The rule that's kept me right
If the task is admin or analysis, AI is probably your friend. If the task is creative or a decision, keep it human.
That's the whole framework. You can apply it to everything you do for the rest of the year and you'll be in a stronger position than most of the industry.
The schools that get this right won't be the ones who use the most AI. They'll be the ones who use it in the right places, and protect the human work.
The bit I'd keep an eye on
In the next twelve months you'll start to see vendors pitching AI tools that promise to write your prospectus, auto-reply to your parents, and run your admissions funnel with no effort on your part. Some of it will be well-intentioned. Most of it will be the same bloated, overpriced pattern I've watched this industry fall for before.
The honest test is quite simple. If the tool is replacing admin or analysis, it's worth a look. If it's replacing judgement or the writing that represents your school to real families, be careful.
So maybe the real win with AI isn't doing more. It's doing less of the work that never needed you in the first place, and protecting the work that only you can do.
