Higher Education Digital Services: Leveraging Digital Transformation to Facilitate Online and Lifelong Learning

To adapt to evolving customer demands, higher education institutes are gravitating toward digital technologies to provide personalized and immersive experiences to students and provide a blended learning experience. Higher education institutes are leveraging AI, analytics, cloud, and AR/VR to provide customized content and support to students. Institutes are also putting emphasis on immersive learning and continuing education to enable employees to upskill and reskill throughout their professional journeys.   

Both demand- and supply-side trends are covered in Avasant’s Higher Education Digital Services 2023–2024 Market Insights™ and Higher Education Digital Services 2023–2024 RadarView™, respectively. These reports present a comprehensive study of digital service providers in the higher education industry, including top trends, analysis, and recommendations. The reports also take a close look at the leaders, innovators, disruptors, and challengers in this market. 

We evaluated 20 service providers across three dimensions: practice maturity, investments and innovation, and partner ecosystem. Of the 20 providers, we recognized 10 that brought the most value to the market during the past 12 months. 

The reports recognize service providers across four categories: 

• • Leaders: HCLTech, IBM, Infosys, and TCS 
  • Innovators: LTIMindtree and Wipro  
  • Disruptors: Accenture and Fujitsu 
  • Challengers: Atos and Burwood Group 

Figure 1 below from the full report illustrates these categories: 

“Higher education institutes are responding to evolving student demands to facilitate a blended/personalized learning experience,” said Avasant Senior Fellow and Principal Rob Devers. “They must leverage new-age technologies such as AI and AR/VR to develop offerings that provide customized content and support.” 

The reports provide several findings, including the following: 

• • Higher education institutes are focusing on blended learning and digital technologies to minimize the impact of global challenges. Technological leverage will help deliver personalized/adaptive learning, foster lifelong learning/skill development, and enrich human capital. 

• • Educational institutes are focusing on adaptive learning and personalization. They are leveraging AI to facilitate research practices, launch skills programs to enhance learning experience, and support students through personalization.  
  • Institutes are emphasizing global perspectives and cross-cultural education. Digital tools for learning have transformed the higher education industry as they provide an interactive and immersive learning experience for students. 
  • Educational institutes are collaborating with industry players to narrow the talent gap. Institutes are launching various online courses and learning programs in emerging technologies such as AI and ML to emphasize real-world application and mastery of competencies required for specific professions or industries. 

“Providers are responding to evolving student demands digitally,” said Eratha Poongkuntran, research leader with Avasant. “By focusing on emerging technologies, such as AR/VR and AI, providers are curating blended offerings around personalized learning and bite-sized content for students.” 

The RadarView also features detailed profiles of 10 service providers, along with their solutions, offerings, and experience in assisting higher education enterprises in their digital transformation journeys. 

This Research Byte is a brief overview of the Higher Education Digital Services 2023–2024 Market Insights™ and Higher Education Digital Services 2023–2024 RadarView™ (click for pricing).