By Walter Villa, Special to STU
St. Thomas University’s enrollment department is on the cutting edge of artificial intelligence technology, and “Tony” is a big reason why.
One example of what makes STU a pioneer among universities in this field is that the school is using AI for both incoming and outgoing calls.
For example, if you are a student who has recently applied to St. Thomas University, you might have received a call from “Tony.”
Even though Tony clearly identifies himself as an AI admissions specialist, his voice, tone, and cadence are so well crafted that many students just assume he is human.
Some students have caught on, however, and they have been charmed.
Here is one real-life example of a call made from AI Tony to a student. The reason for the call was that Tony/STU were looking for transcripts to be sent in to aid in the application process.
Student (after a brief conversation with Tony): “Hey, wait a second, is this AI?
Tony: “Yes, I’m an AI admissions specialist from St. Thomas University.”
Student: “No way! That’s so cool!”
Tony: “Yes, it is cool! I’d love to help you!”
Said Dionne Veitch, STU’s Vice President for Enrollment: “AI Tony matched that student’s tone and excitement. This is really smart AI – almost sentient.”
Credit a company called OutRival for creating Tony, and credit Veitch for immediately recognizing how this could help STU become more efficient.
STU and OutRival first made contact this past December when Veitch sat in on a call from an A1 representative of the aforementioned company.
The proverbial light bulb went off inside Veitch’s head, and she met with OutRival’s Timur Meyster and Ruben Harris less than one week later.
Meyster, who is OutRival’s co-founder and the Chief Product Officer, and Harris, who is the Chief Executive Officer, presented a demo for STU on December 11, 2024, and Veitch met with the duo one week later in order to come up with “an admissions game plan.”
After some fine-tuning, STU rolled out AI Tony on January 2, 2025. The whole process took three weeks, and it could have been introduced even faster if not for the holidays.
“Initially, OutRival gave us an incredibly professional sounding ‘corporate America’ woman’s voice to make these outgoing calls,” Veitch said. “I said, ‘No, that doesn’t sound like our students.’”
Veitch proposed a younger, male voice with a slight Hispanic accent, and the decision was made to call him “Tony.”
Veitch also gave OutRival other notes as well. For example, there tended to be a pause between a student’s question and the response from AI Tony.
“I wanted to increase the cadence,” Veitch said. “In line with the best customer service, OutRival said, ‘Yep, we can absolutely do that.’ They matched it to a T. It was perfect.”
Meyster heaped praise on Veitch.
“Dionne’s visionary approach shone through from our very first meeting,” Meyster said. “With a modest team (from a numerical standpoint), Dionne explained that the AI technology would aid staff members to handle the volume of calls, especially when hundreds of students were missing key documents such as transcripts.
“With Dionne’s bold leadership, our AI solution placed more than 3,000 calls in just two weeks.”
Tony was a huge hit with students as 21 percent of them sent in their transcripts after taking the AI call.
“Without Tony, we could never have completed that amount of outreach,” Veitch said. “It would have taken our team a week of non-stop calls to get through the list a single time while AI Tony calls multiple times until he reaches a person.
This freed up our team to do more personalized outreach and truly counsel our prospective students. This is where we shine.
The bottom line is that working with OutRival was a huge win for us, and we’re just getting started.”
Next up, Veitch decided to use Tony with what she called, ‘It’s time to pay your bill!’”
AI Tony walked students through the bill-paying process with expert knowledge and the ability to answer questions.
“We’ve now used AI Tony for three campaigns,” Veitch said, “and all of them have been very successful.”
The key to making AI Tony work is feeding him information — a script, frequently asked questions, and anything else that might help students.
“The more information we give AI Tony, the more he can converse with whomever he is speaking to,” Veitch said. “That will make for a better student experience.”
After the early successes, Veitch brought the AI Tony concept to Steven Birmingham, who is STU’s Chief Information Officer.
“I said to Steven, ‘We can have all in-bound calls that go to our main St. Thomas University number to go to Tony,” Veitch said.
Birmingham quickly made it happen, and, very soon, anyone calling STU’s main number will have a much better experience.
For example, AI Tony will not only transfer you to your desired department, but he will stay on the phone with you until that party answers.
If there is no answer, AI Tony will say: ‘It looks like they are not available right now. Is there something I can help you with, or can I take your name and number?’
“AI Tony will type out the message and send it and the recording to whomever you were trying to reach.
At the end of the day, AI Tony can send a summary of every call that came in to each director.”
There is also a follow-up component. AI Tony can send a text the following week to say something like: ‘Hey, how did it go? Did you have any problems uploading your transcript?’”
Birmingham said most schools he is familiar with use AI chatbots that are text-based and not as conversational as what STU is using.
In addition, STU – according to Birmingham — is hoping to soon connect AI to STU student systems information unique to them such as: “What types of classes do I perform best in?”
Meyster said he has been impressed by STU’s “hands-on, impact-driven approach to higher education and student support.”
Added Meyster: “STU isn’t just adopting technology for added efficiency; they are embracing AI as a strategic tool to elevate every facet of the student experience.
“This isn’t about replacing human interaction. It’s about supplementing it so that advisors can focus on what they do best – guiding students through one of the most important decisions of their lives.”
Perhaps Veitch put it best.
“This is so interactive,” she said. “When it comes to working with OutRival and AI, the possibilities are limitless.”
