Robots & Pencils previews its agentic AI session on proactive student support ahead of ASU’s Agentic AI and the Student Experience Summit, October 20 to 22.

CLEVELAND, Oct. 13, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Robots & Pencils, an applied AI partner that deploys frontier AI for measurable business outcomes, today announced it is returning as a sponsor of the Agentic AI and the Student Experience Summit, hosted by Arizona State University (ASU) October 20 to 22, 2026, at the Omni Tempe Hotel. Elliott Hedman, Robots & Pencils Lead AI Strategist for Education, will join a panel session, “Using AI to help professors start the conversations students avoid,” on how agentic AI can help faculty notice when a student is struggling or facing an academic integrity concern, and start the conversation before it’s too late. Hedman holds a Ph.D. in psychophysiology, AI, and user research from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

Higher education leaders spent the last two years piloting generative AI chatbots and assistants across advising and student support. Most of those pilots answer a question a student already knew to ask. Few reach the student who disengages and never asks anything at all, which is the harder problem advising and student success offices are now asking vendors to solve.

“Most AI tools wait for a student to come ask for help. The best tools find the students who are struggling and step in before they ask,” said Hedman. “That’s what I’m walking through in Tempe: what it takes to build an agentic AI system that notices when a student may need help, reaches out before they are asked to, connects them to the right campus resource, and follows through until they get it.”

“Agentic AI in higher education is measured by whether students get help before they have to ask, and whether faculty and staff trust it enough to point students toward it,” said Jason Lacy, SVP, Client Partner at Robots & Pencils. “That’s ultimately the standard proactive student support has to meet.”

Senior Delivery Manager Alison DuBose and Technical Lead Chetan Thayur will join Lacy and Hedman on-site for the three-day summit, meeting with higher education leaders throughout the event by request.

Robots & Pencils has delivered production systems at ASU across enrollment, financial aid, media, credentialing, and operations, including MediaPlus, ASU’s enterprise media platform built with AWS, a Canvas enrollment system that cut 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 building Nova Sol, an agentic platform that helps ASU reach students who need support, alongside Degree Planner and the Food is Medicine wellness portal.

Higher education leaders attending the summit can request time with the Robots & Pencils team by contacting Lacy directly at jason.lacy@robotsandpencils.com or visiting robotsandpencils.com.

About Robots & Pencils

Robots & Pencils is an applied AI partner that deploys frontier AI for measurable business outcomes. 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. Founded in 2009, Robots & Pencils has earned the trust of leaders in Consumer Products and Retail, Education, Energy, Financial Services, Healthcare, and Manufacturing industries, gaining a reputation as a high-velocity alternative to traditional global systems integrators.

Contact: Christina Morello
christina.morello@robotsandpencils.com

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