Private schools today are navigating rising expectations for personalized experiences alongside growing administrative pressure, increasingly complex operations and high turnover rates. Many are exploring how to apply AI in meaningful ways that support their teams by reducing administrative burden and spending more time building the human connections that define education.
Blackbaud’s latest innovations are built to meet this moment, bringing human-centered AI to education with intelligent tools embedded directly into its K-12 solutions to help schools turn insight into action. By unifying these capabilities within a shared data foundation, Blackbaud’s Total School Solution helps schools reduce fragmentation, gain clearer insight, and take more coordinated action across their entire community.
“Education is, and always will be, a deeply human experience,” said Mark Davis, vice president and general manager of education products, Blackbaud. “Our focus is on using responsible AI to reduce administrative burden and strengthen the relationships at the heart of schools, giving teams the tools to act earlier, operate more efficiently, and deliver more connected experiences for families.”
Introducing the Admissions Agent
At the center of Blackbaud’s latest announcements is the Admissions Agent, part of the company’s broader Agents for Good™ agentic AI suite. Purpose-built for schools, the Admissions Agent will enable every independent school to offer the high-touch, personalized admissions experience that previously only the most well-resourced institutions could achieve. The Agent works semi-autonomously or fully autonomously based on each school’s comfort level, always within guardrails and always human-centered.
The Agent will:
- Reduce friction throughout the admissions funnel, guiding families through each stage of the process
- Give potential applicants rapid answers to critical questions
- Keep families engaged with timely, personalized follow-up
- Identify where prospective families may be dropping off from the admission process
- Increase qualified, complete applications with a concierge admissions experience
Blackbaud will launch an early adopter program soon to partner with schools on shaping the solution to meet the specific needs of school administrators.
Driving a New Era of Connected Intelligence
Blackbaud is embedding AI across its K–12 solutions to help schools move from managing systems to driving outcomes. Innovation highlighted across Blackbaud’s Total School Solutionto reduce manual work and improve coordination across the campus includes:
- Candidate Insights—predictive enrollment and engagement insights—that draw on both historical and real-time data, as well as Blackbaud’s proprietary insights to recommend next best actions to engage candidates
- Blackbaud AI Chat that helps administratorsquickly ask questions of their data, get insights in plain language and take action, directly within the solution
- A Common Records Engine that syncs data in real time between Blackbaud Student Information System™ and Blackbaud Raiser’s Edge NXT®, breaking down silos between departments
- A new Enrollment Contracts capability that simplifies the enrollment process, enabling administrators to streamline contract adjustments and automatically pull in financial management teams once a contract is signed
- Student Success Insights that help schools proactively identify and support at-risk students
- A new Parent Initiated Attendance feature that allows parents to submit absences, tardies and early dismissals directly through the Student Information System portal, providing real-time information to both administrative staff and teachers
- Enhancements across Blackbaud’s Learning Management System from a new, simpler grading hub to AI tools that help teachers create and manage assignments
- An AI-enabled Collections Assistant that helps finance teams get ahead of late payments and see the full picture of a family’s situation
Together, these advancements enable schools to operate more proactively and reduce administrative burden while improving how they engage students and families.
A Community Focused on the Future
Blackbaud’s K–12 User Conference brings together hundreds of school leaders, educators, and administrators for three days of hands-on learning, product innovation sessions, and peer collaboration. Attendees explore new technologies, participate in breakout sessions and discussions, and connect with peers and partners to share best practices and ideas for the future of K–12 private education. Day three will feature the popular Unconference experience—an open, participant-driven forum where educators shape the agenda based on topics that matter most to them.
“Blackbaud has a long history of commitment to education and schools, and this conference is one of the special things they do,” said John Yen, director of technology, Polytechnic School. “There are so few conferences and networking opportunities for the support staff and administrators in schools, and this is an important opportunity to engage, learn, and share best practices. With AI at the forefront of technology today, ensuring the underpinnings of our school operations is the essential foundation in weathering changing times and the ongoing evolution in education.”
Supporting Stronger Outcomes for Schools
“Research shows that teachers and staff spend over 50% of their time on administrative work,” Blackbaud’s Mark Davis added. “At Blackbaud we’re integrating AI into the tools they use every day to reduce that burden and provide more opportunity to focus on what’s most important: empowering student success.”
