Episode
Ep. 89 - Leslie Weller: How AI Site Search Turns Student Discovery Into a Competitive Advantage
- Podcast
- The Signal
- Published
- May 29, 2026
- Duration seconds
- 1909
- Processing state
not_requested
Actions
POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-signal-7024065/episodes/ep-89-leslie-weller-how-ai-site-search-turns-student-discovery-into-a-competitive-advantage/transcription-requests
Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode.GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-signal-7024065/ep-89-leslie-weller-how-ai-site-search-turns-student-discovery-into-a-competitive-advantage.md
Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource.
Summary
Every month, nearly half a million people type questions into your university's search bar. They're telling you exactly what they want to know—about deadlines, transfer credits, program fit. And yet, 31% of higher ed digital teams have no access to that data at all. In this episode, Jeff Dillon welcomes Leslie Weller, Director of Product Marketing at SearchStax, a site search platform helping colleges and universities transform how students find information online. Leslie brings over 25 years of experience making complex enterprise software understandable—and she's now applying that lens to higher ed's fragmented, decentralized digital landscape. Drawing on SearchStax’ recent research study conducted with The Chronicle of Higher Education, Leslie reveals the gap between how important colleges think site search is and how poorly it's actually performing. She explains why 93% of students rely on websites during their college search, yet only 19% of digital teams believe they're delivering a great experience. Leslie also tackles the AI shift head-on, arguing that site search is a "great AI lever" schools already own. She shares practical examples of how AI can re-rank content by semantic meaning, suggest synonyms and even generate instant answers to common questions. For any enrollment leader, web manager, or digital strategist trying to reduce friction and convert more curious visitors into applicants, this episode offers a clear, actionable roadmap. Key Takeaways Site Search Is a High-Intent Goldmine: 43% of website visitors use the search bar. For a school with 1 million monthly visitors, that's nearly half a million people every single month telling you exactly what they want to know. Yet 31% of digital teams have no access to this first-party data. The Gap Is Massive…