By Krešo Žmak – Chief Innovation Officer at Infobip
Customer communications are evolving. Basic chatbots, which often failed to provide a satisfactory experience for customers, are quickly becoming a thing of the past.
Agentic AI is on the tip of everyone’s tongue as the next generation, with smart agents being cited as the all-encompassing solution for a lack capacity, declining engagement and shifting consumer expectations. And it’s true, automated agents are transforming the landscape, enabling organisations to move beyond fragmented and transactional communications towards intelligent conversations that span channels and entire customer journeys.
But context is crucial. Agentic AI can’t deliver in a vacuum. It needs to stand on a foundation of clean data, with access to the relevant details of the person they’re speaking to. Understanding their status and conversational history, across channels is what makes the interaction personal and satisfying. And earning an individual’s trust of course goes hand in hand. US-based Barry University has cracked this and demonstrated success with conversational AI, layering agents on top of a comprehensive Customer Data Platform and CRM, alongside robust authentication and privacy processes.
Higher education’s communication bottleneck
Choosing a university is complex. Students have concerns. Universities often need to answer student questions before they can make this big decision. However, higher education institutions have long grappled with managing complex queries from prospective students and throughout the enrolment journey.
The process is often fraught with diverse inquiries and expectations of near 24/7 support from a generation of digital-savvy teens. Students, accustomed to seamless digital experiences elsewhere, increasingly expect their university interactions to be equally intuitive, always-on and provide more accurate responses.
Moreover, universities face increasing inquiry volumes and limited staff capacity. This leaves students navigating application complexities with delayed responses or impersonal, fragmented interactions. Traditional methods, such as inquiry forms or overburdened staff, struggle to keep pace with the demand for instant, personalized support and in some cases the conversation goes backwards which creates a frustration with the student. This dynamic creates a bottleneck. It may hinder or deter applicants.
A blueprint for AI-native engagement
Barry University recognized the growing gap between student expectations and operational realities. In response, it embarked on an ambitious journey to overhaul its student engagement platform. The university moved beyond traditional keyword searches to embrace conversational AI. The solution is an integrated AI engagement platform powered by global AI-first communications platform Infobip. This combined the university’s Customer Data Platform (CDP) and multiple CRM’s with Infobip’s communications platform.
This unified approach allows the university to recognize users instantly. It can also now better understand student intent and personalize interactions across a range of channels including web chat, SMS, WhatsApp and Apple Messages. Rather than treating each communication as a standalone interaction, the platform maintains conversational context across channels, delivering a seamless and personalized student experience from the first touchpoint.
A standout feature is Barry’s secure, AI-powered student self-service offering. Through one-time passcode (OTP) authentication, AI agents securely verify a student’s identity. This step enables the AI to deliver richer, context-aware conversations while maintaining appropriate security and privacy standards.
Once authenticated, students can receive immediate, account-specific answers regarding their application status, documentation, and admissions progress. Students receive the information they need without waiting for office hours or staff assistance. This capability extends Barry’s vision of providing personalized, always-available support throughout the enrolment journey.
During the 2025-26 academic year, the platform achieved a 92% authentication success rate. Such results establish a robust foundation for expanding AI-powered student services.
Moreover, AI-powered conversational experiences generated 58% of all inquiries from the website, compared with 42% through traditional forms. The team at Barry University embraced agentic AI technologies as an opportunity to innovate. The team recognized Infobip’s AgentOS’s ability to evolve and adapt to differing use cases.
Authenticated AI really matters
The Barry University case highlights the importance of authenticated AI. It strikes a balance between personalisation and trust, allowing AI agents to know who they’re speaking to without compromising sensitive data. This privacy-sensitive approach, underpinned by OTP authentication, is important for any enterprise handling personal information.
Beyond security, authenticated AI unlocks operational scalability. It enables systems to handle an ever-increasing volume of inquiries, 24/7. This frees up human staff to focus on more complex, high-value interactions.
For the customer, it transforms a previously frustrating, impersonal experience into an instant and highly personalized one. Such seamless experiences should create a competitive advantage, no matter the sector.
Evolving with real-world feedback
Agentic AI’s ability to evolve organically is one of the primary drivers for its notoriety and rapid adoption. Deployment feedback from Barry has been instrumental in shaping Infobip’s AgentOS service, turning it into a robust multi-channel orchestration solution. The platform is becoming deeply embedded into organisational workflows, enabling AI to become an integral, rather than peripheral, part of the university’s operational fabric.
The future lies in conversational AI ecosystems
The advantage of AI-native customer engagement is the ability of agents to learn from real-world scenarios and evolve. AI agents can begin to anticipate needs and help guide students throughout their time at the university. AI agents are redefining what an enterprise’s front desk looks like in the digital age. It’s time for organisations, no matter their sector, to embrace agentic AI and deliver a competitive advantage.
