Mainstay’s advantage isn’t just in using generative AI. It’s in how we use it:
– with oversight,
– with institutional context,
– and with a human handoff when it matters most.
That’s what we set out to prove when we built Carie the Career Coach, and it’s what we’re scaling now across the entire Mainstay platform.
It started with a single pilot.
In 2024, Mainstay partnered with UCNJ Union College of Union County, NJ to run a pilot built on a bold idea:
What if a generative AI career coach, an agent, could re-engage adult learners—through text—and help them navigate their next step?
Carie reached out to 6,884 stopped-out learners, a group notoriously difficult to connect with through traditional channels.
The results?
- 12% engaged in live, two-way conversation with Carie.
- 67% passively engaged, receiving personalized, relevant messages over time.
- 136 students self-reported intent to return to UCNJ.
- 49 escalated to a human for continued conversation (and expressed interest in returning).
That’s nearly 200 adult learners reactivated—not with robocalls or cold emails, but with authentic, curiosity-driven guidance.
Carie did more than answer questions, and Opened Conversations.
We designed Carie to do more than just provide static career advice. Carie was built to listen, respond, and adapt.
That meant fielding real concerns like:
“Can I still graduate with the credits I already have?”
“I want to come back, but I’m scared I won’t finish again.”
“How do I even know which programs lead to the career I want?”
These aren’t questions that lend themselves to drop-down menus or static workflows. They require dialogue. They require flexibility.
They require trust.
And for the first time, we saw generative AI build that trust—at scale.
And that trust unlocked better support—without adding more work.
Behind the scenes, we were testing something else:
Could GenAI reduce the workload for already overburdened staff?
It did. And dramatically.
By introducing generative responses, we eliminated fallback messages entirely. In just the final two months of the pilot, 117 learners received reliable, on-topic generative replies that previously would have required manual review.
Carie didn’t just handle common questions, but also facilitated check-ins, explored future goals, and escalated conversations when necessary.
What we learned shaped our product for every Mainstay partner.
The most important takeaway from Carie?
This kind of generative dialogue works—when you pair it with:
- Institutional oversight (through smart guardrails)
- Built-in escalation (when a human should step in)
- Prompt design rooted in behavioral science
That’s now core to how our partners use Mainstay.
Today, they’re not just sending reminders or FAQs. They’re launching open-ended, generative conversations—at scale—to:
- Help students explore future selves
- Guide learners in choosing the right institution or major
- Surface scholarship opportunities
- And soon, much more
Even better? Partners can now create their own custom guided conversations using prompts—just like Carie—to meet their unique institutional goals.
From Career Coach to Campus-Wide Catalyst
Carie the Career Coach started as a single-use case for a competition.
It’s now the blueprint for something much bigger:
A human-centered, AI-enhanced approach to engagement that listens at scale, responds with care, and helps institutions focus where it counts.
If your team wants to re-engage students, surface insight, or reduce strain on staff—while preserving trust and quality—you don’t have to build it from scratch.