This week in education brought some of the biggest news about artificial intelligence helping students succeed in school. The main story involves three major organizations joining forces to change how students learn and get support from universities around the world.

Arizona State University (ASU), Amazon Web Services (AWS), and Cintana Education announced an exciting partnership to build smart AI tools called agentic AI agents. These agents are special computer programs that can think and make decisions on their own, kind of like having a helpful robot assistant. The three organizations will work together to create open-source tools, which means they will share their work with other schools for free.

What makes this partnership really special is that students are building the tools. Instead of just adults creating these AI agents, young student workers at ASU are doing much of the design and testing work. These students work alongside expert teachers and cloud technology specialists from AWS and ASU's AI Cloud Innovation Center. One student worker named Shristi Pathak explained that she designed the AI system "to walk alongside students through their application process." This means students are learning important skills while creating real solutions that help other students.

The first AI agent they are building is designed to help students who want to apply to college. Right now, many students feel confused and alone during the application process. This new AI agent will be able to chat with students, answer their questions, and help guide them through each step. The tool will be especially helpful for students in other countries who speak different languages, since the AI agents can communicate in many native languages.

The partnership also plans to create smart tutoring agents that can help students learn any subject whenever they need help. Imagine having a tutor available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, who knows your learning style and speaks your language. That is what these AI tutors will do.

The reach of this partnership is huge. The ASU-Cintana Alliance includes 33 partner universities in 28 different countries serving more than 330,000 students. This means the new tools will eventually help hundreds of thousands of students around the world.

Schools in the Philippines and Ecuador will be the first to test these new tools. By starting in different countries with different student populations and challenges, the teams can learn what works best and make improvements before rolling out to all partner universities.

Meanwhile, another company called Druid AI introduced its comprehensive new platform designed to help entire universities operate better. Unlike tools that only help with one job, Druid AI's system helps universities with many different tasks. It helps recruit new students, support current students, keep track of alumni, and even helps the university's offices like human resources, information technology, and finance departments run more smoothly.

The Druid AI platform is already being used at several universities, including Columbus State University, Georgia Southern University, Morehouse College, and the University System of Georgia. Leaders at these schools say the AI tools are helping them in two important ways: they are making the student experience better and they are helping the university save time and money.

One university leader explained that this kind of complete approach is "the secret sauce that is really going to set schools apart and drive true campus-wide transformation." Another leader from Georgia Southern University said that Druid's solution "was exactly what we needed to enhance our communication capabilities in a way that was both innovative and practical."

At Arizona State University, there is also news that they are testing a new AI writing platform with agentic tools. This partnership will help students improve their writing skills with the help of intelligent AI agents.

In Hong Kong, the university HKUST is strengthening its AI and sustainability education programs. More students than ever are enrolling in their "Major + AI" track, with enrollment jumping by 70% during the 2024-25 school year. This shows that students around the world want to learn about AI and use it for good purposes.

All of these developments show one clear trend: agentic AI is becoming a normal part of how universities work and how students learn. These AI agents are smart enough to have conversations, understand what students need, and provide help in many languages. They work all day and night to support students. Most importantly, they are being designed to help students everywhere, including those in countries that might not have had access to advanced technology before.

The next few months will be important because universities will test these tools with real students in real classrooms around the world. As these tools improve and universities learn what works best, AI agents will likely become even more helpful in supporting student success.