Robots & Pencils Returns to Higher Ed Summit on AI Support

CLEVELAND, Oct. 13, 2026 /CourierPR/ -- Robots & Pencils, an applied AI partner that deploys frontier AI for measurable business outcomes, is set to return as a sponsor of the Agentic AI and the Student Experience Summit, hosted by Arizona State University (ASU) on October 20 to 22, 2026, at the Omni Tempe Hotel. The summit, which runs from October 20 to 22, will feature Robots & Pencils, an applied AI partner that deploys frontier AI for measurable business outcomes, as a sponsor. The session will focus on how agentic AI can assist faculty in identifying when a student is struggling or facing an academic integrity concern, and initiate a conversation before it's too late. Hedman, who holds a Ph.D. in psychophysiology, AI, and user research from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), will be discussing the challenges and solutions in building an agentic AI system that can notice when a student may need help and intervene before they are asked to.

Higher education leaders have been piloting generative AI chatbots and assistants across advising and student support for the past two years. These tools are primarily designed to answer questions that students already know to ask, rather than reaching out to those who are disengaged and never ask anything at all. This is the harder problem that advising and student success offices are now tasked with solving.

Hedman will be sharing insights on how to build an agentic AI system that can notice when a student may need help, initiate a conversation before they are asked, and connect them to the right campus resource. The ultimate goal is to ensure that students receive the help they need before they have to ask for it, and that faculty and staff trust the system enough to point students toward it.

Robots & Pencils, founded in 2009, has a proven track record of delivering production systems across various sectors, including enrollment, financial aid, media, credentialing, and operations. The company's portfolio includes MediaPlus, a Canvas enrollment system that reduced course creation and enrollment from three days to thirty minutes, a 24/7 financial aid chatbot, and the CredID digital credentialing platform. Today, the team is focused on building Nova Sol, an agentic platform that helps ASU reach students who need support, alongside Degree Planner and the Food is Medicine wellness portal.

Robots & Pencils is an AWS Advanced Tier Services Partner, AWS Pattern Partner, and AWS Business Value Realization (BVR) Launch Partner with delivery centers in the United States, Canada, Eastern Europe, and Latin America. The company combines world-class UX with elite engineering talent for rapid, enterprise-grade delivery. The team's expertise spans across industries, including Consumer Products and Retail, Education, Energy, Financial Services, Healthcare, and Manufacturing.