Thrivemattic Research Finds Indian Colleges Underprepared for AI-Led Admissions Discovery
Thrivemattic's 2026 review of 124 NIRF-ranked colleges found that many college websites lack the structured data and admissions information that search and AI systems use to identify programmes and answer student questions.
The study found no programme-level structured tags on the 124 sites. Nine per cent had basic institution-level tags.
Structured data labels information on a page so search engines and other systems can identify an institution, programme or specific detail more reliably. AI can still interpret a website without these tags, but the institution gives the system less explicit information to work with.
Students can now begin their college search by asking an AI tool which institutions offer a course, which options fit a budget or eligibility requirement, or where placement information is available. The student may reach several institutions before searching for any one of them by name.
"Students can begin with the question they want answered and may never start with a college name," said Sandeep Kelvadi, Founder and AI-Native Marketing Systems Builder at Thrivemattic. "That makes the quality and structure of published information more important. If a fee, deadline or programme detail is hard to find, the institution has less control over what search and AI systems surface."
The website gaps extend beyond structured data. Forty per cent of the colleges did not state the admissions deadline clearly. Across the 124-college cohort, the average mobile website speed score was 53 out of 100.
Thrivemattic's separate September 2026 study of 194 Indian private and deemed universities found strong branded Google visibility. Among the 187 universities with usable branded search results, 169, or 90.4%, ranked first for their own institutional name. AI-led discovery changes the entry point because a student can compare institutions by course, cost, eligibility or career goal without naming a university first.
"Admissions teams usually focus on the journey after a prospective student reaches the institution," said Noella Cresence, Head, Marketing Communications & Strategy at Thrivemattic. "Our research shows that the information students encounter earlier also needs attention. A student may already be comparing institutions through search and AI before the admissions team has a chance to speak to them."
For the 2026 admissions cycle, institutions need accurate programme and admissions information that works across direct search, AI-led discovery and the website visit that follows.
Research resources
Indian Colleges Digital Readiness Report 2026: https://thrivemattic.com/indian-colleges-digital-readiness/
The Digital State of India's Private Universities 2026: https://thrivemattic.com/private-university-marketing-research/
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