Leading Advising in the Age of Intelligent Systems: Human Judgment, AI, and Student Retention

Higher education institutions are under sustained pressure to improve student retention and enrollment while managing increasing complexity in advising demands, institutional accountability, and learner diversity. Traditional academic advising models—often constrained by staffing limitations and reactive intervention structures—have proven insufficient in addressing these challenges at scale. Artificial Intelligence (AI) has emerged as a promising augmentation to advising systems, offering predictive analytics, conversational agents, and data-driven decision support. However, existing research has largely emphasized technical functionality rather than the leadership and organizational conditions required for effective and ethical implementation. This study investigates how AI-enhanced academic advising can be strategically led and institutionalized to support student retention and enrollment outcomes while maintaining a student-centered, developmental ethos. Employing a convergent mixed-methods design, the study integrates qualitative non-participant observation with institutional analytics at Abu Dhabi University (ADU). The analysis is grounded in Systems Thinking and Student Development Theory to examine how technological, human, and organizational subsystems interact in practice. Findings indicate that AI tools improve efficiency by automating routine advising tasks and enabling early identification of at-risk students. However, their effectiveness depends fundamentally on leadership vision, advisor training, ethical governance, and integration with human advising practices. Human advisors remain essential for contextual judgment, emotional support, and developmental mentoring. The study proposes a leadership-driven hybrid advising model in which AI enhances—but does not replace—human expertise. The findings contribute to the emerging literature on AI-enabled educational leadership and offer practical guidance for institutions seeking to align innovation with student development and institutional strategy.