Session Highlight: Agentic AI for Academic Insights at U.S. News

For decades, U.S. News & World Report’s Academic Insights platform has been one of higher education’s most trusted resources, helping colleges and universities understand and improve their institutional performance. Designed as a subscription-based, web analytics tool, it allows higher education leaders to analyze rankings data, benchmark against peer institutions, and track progress over time. But with the recent integration of an agentic AI system, Academic Insights has entered a new era: one where complex institutional data becomes instantly understandable, interactive, and actionable.

At AGENTIC 2025, U.S. News Chief Technology Officer Vineet Mahajan will share how his team built this agentic, chat-style AI assistant, what they’ve learned from deploying it, and how it’s reshaping decision-making across the higher education landscape. This session is a case study in AI adoption in the enterprise, highlighting what happens when human expertise and machine intelligence converge to empower users who have never written a single line of code.

The new AI capability enables non-technical users to pose plain-English questions and instantly receive trustworthy answers, data visualizations, and concise explanations drawn directly from verified datasets. Instead of requiring analysts to query dashboards or manipulate spreadsheets, the agentic AI assistant can surface relevant metrics and interpret them in context—turning complex data models into accessible insights. The result is faster decision-making, greater data literacy, and a more democratized approach to analytics across institutions.

The transformation of Academic Insights reflects a broader trend. As more organizations realize that the success of Generative AI and agentic systems depends on high-quality, structured, and contextualized data, leaders are rethinking how they design information ecosystems. At U.S. News, that means ensuring that every AI response is grounded in credible, well-governed data, which is a principle that builds both trust and adoption among users.

The implications for AI in higher education are significant. For years, institutional researchers and administrators have faced a growing complexity of datasets, from admissions trends to graduation outcomes. With the addition of agentic AI assistants, these users can now navigate vast information repositories with natural language, gaining insights in seconds that once took days or weeks to uncover. The technology bridges a crucial gap between accessibility and accuracy, enabling leaders to act on data more confidently.

As explored in The Role of Culture in AI Adoption, the introduction of AI tools in any enterprise requires a shift in mindset. Successful integration is not only about technology readiness but about cultivating trust and curiosity among users. The U.S. News team approached this by designing a human-centered AI interface, emphasizing explainability and transparency. Users can ask how a conclusion was reached or see the underlying data visualizations, fostering confidence in both the system and the insights it produces.

This cultural alignment, where AI empowers rather than intimidates, is central to agentic AI’s role in the enterprise. Similar to the lessons discussed in From Use Case to Use Value, the success of AI deployment comes from embedding intelligence into real workflows, not just experimenting with standalone models. U.S. News demonstrates what this looks like in practice: a platform where educators, analysts, and administrators can engage with AI as an intelligent collaborator, not a black box.

Beyond technical achievement, this initiative underscores how AI for academic analytics can create new value for institutions. With agentic capabilities, universities can forecast potential outcomes, benchmark progress against peers, and identify performance gaps before they affect rankings or funding. In doing so, AI becomes more than an analytical tool; it becomes a strategic partner in institutional planning and leadership.

At AGENTIC 2025, Vineet Mahajan’s session will provide an inside look at how U.S. News built, deployed, and scaled this innovation and what it reveals about the next frontier of AI in data-driven decision-making. Attendees will learn how to prepare their own organizations for agentic systems, transform datasets into AI-ready assets, and balance automation with oversight to ensure transparency and trust.

Agentic AI for Academic Insights offers a vision of the future where decision-makers no longer need to choose between depth and speed. They can have both: data-driven clarity delivered conversationally, securely, and on demand.

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In the evolving landscape of AI in higher education, U.S. News is showing what’s possible when agentic systems meet mission-driven institutions: faster insight, smarter collaboration, and more informed leadership across the academic ecosystem.