The business case
How many extra students does it have tobring in?
Between one and three, depending on scope. At an illustrative $25,000 of first-year revenue, a single additional enrolment funds a specialist agent for two and a half years; three cover the whole platform, sitewide, for a year.
That is the business case.
Everything below is how you defend it in a finance review — the arithmetic, the evidence behind each assumption, and how you will measure the result.
The dollar figures on this page are worked examples, not Airgentic's price. Substitute your own annual cost and first-year revenue per enrolled student and the shape of the answer does not change.
Additional enrolments a year to break even, using illustrative annual costs and $25,000 of first-year revenue
0.4
One specialist agent
Illustrative example: $10,000 a year
0.6
Agent plus Airgentic Assist
Illustrative example: $15,000 a year
1.2–3.2
The whole platform, sitewide
Illustrative range: $30,000–$80,000 a year, tracking institution size
Evidence from BCIT
The qualifiers matter more than the headline, because they are what let the number survive scrutiny. BCIT's site search already performed well, so this is an uplift on a strong baseline. Airgentic was carrying under 5% of search volume, so these are early-adoption figures, not a ceiling. And the return was calculated by BCIT's own analytics lead, on incremental revenue attributable to Airgentic users — not by us.
2×
revenue per user, against site search
4×
applications per user
5,000%
ROI by the second month
Two models. Do not add them together.
One is revenue and one is avoided cost. A finance team will treat them differently.
Enrolment revenue
Sized for stage one — one agent on your course and program pages, not the whole site.
- Course and program page sessions a year
- 1,200,000
- Engaged with Airgentic in year one — conservative
- 2%
- Additional applications at +25% — BCIT observed +300%
- +60
- Additional enrolments at 35% acceptance
- +21
Twenty-one students is roughly 0.3% of a commencing cohort. If that reads as achievable, the model is not the ambitious part of this page.
Avoided contact cost
Enquiries nobody has to touch, across admissions, student services and the switchboard.
- Enquiries a year — phone, email and counter
- 120,000
- Resolved without a person — conservative
- 20%
- Blended cost per contact
- $12
- Contacts avoided
- 24,000
This is released capacity, not removed headcount. Universities rarely cut service staff, so treat it as growth you do not have to fund.
Every volume above comes from your analytics or your service desk; both percentages are set well below what BCIT measured. Dollar results use the same illustrative $25,000 first-year revenue and $12 blended cost per contact.
Not in the model.
All real. None of them needed to justify the spend.
Retention
The largest number we are leaving out. A student who stays is another year of tuition, and we do not yet have the evidence to size it honestly.
Staff efficiency
Repeat questions answered once. Content gaps surfaced by the conversation log rather than hunted for.
Student satisfaction
Fewer dead ends, answers with citations, and a person on the end of it when the question warrants one.
Institution-wide engagement
Events, news, research and alumni all ride the same index, at no additional cost.
How you will prove it — BCIT's own method.
1. Segment
Tag Airgentic-engaged sessions in your own analytics. A Tag Manager container does it.
2. Compare
Revenue and applications per user, engaged against site-search users — not against all visitors. Comparing two high-intent segments is what answers the objection that these people would have applied anyway.
3. Attribute
Incremental revenue is the gap multiplied by engaged users. BCIT had a defensible number in about eight weeks, which is inside a single reporting cycle.
More in this series
Solution
Airgentic for Higher Education
Precision discovery, specialist agents and conversational intelligence for universities and colleges.
See the solutionRoadmaps
Three ways in. You do not have to start sitewide.
Phased proof, recruitment first, or the full answer layer.
See the roadmapsImplementation
How long does implementation take?
Between two weeks and ten — and it is mostly your choice.
See implementation optionsPricing
What am I buying, and what sets the price?
One subscription, sized by conversational outcomes. No per-seat licensing.
How pricing worksBring the model to a working session.
We will substitute your volumes, your first-year revenue and your service-desk costs — and leave the BCIT method in place so finance can reproduce it.