Solicitation of Interest: AI Tutor

The State University of New York (SUNY) is a system of public colleges and universities in the State of New York. It is the largest comprehensive system of universities, colleges, and community colleges in the United States. SUNY spans 64 campuses throughout the state, educating approximately 480,000 students in more than 7,500 degree and certificate programs.

This Solicitation of Interest (SOI) seeks to help SUNY understand the capabilities of AI tutoring platforms for higher education and to identify organizations with AI tutoring platforms who may be interested in working with SUNY to develop and deploy an AI-based tutor solution across the SUNY System. SUNY envisions an AI-based Tutor that is supported centrally and made available to faculty on any of SUNY’s 64 campuses. The AI tutor will offer personalized learning support and real-time assistance to help students master course content. It should also be accessible to students on a 24X7 basis and offer scalable, stigma-free assistance to help students achieve course learning outcomes.

At implementation, the AI Tutor will integrate with Brightspace, the LMS for SUNY’s Digital Learning Environment (DLE) and may be made available outside of the DLE after the initial implementation. The AI-based tutor will initially be trained for specific SUNY courses based on faculty content and their instructional approaches. Where it is appropriate, the AI Tutor will also direct students to publicly available content, outside of the course, that is aligned with the faculty instructional approaches. Future use cases may also include the ability to address general concepts of writing, study skills, etc. as provided by campus tutoring centers.

Project Outcomes

Once implemented, the project is planning to achieve the following outcomes:

• Increased accessibility / reduced barriers to learning for students.
• Improved student retention, mastery, and engagement.
• Improved student learning outcomes and course completion rates.
• Data-driven insights into how students progress through the course as well as where they struggle and need help versus where they do not.
• Improved course instructional design and enhanced course materials.

AI Tutor System Requirements

1. A solution would provide access to AI-based tutoring assistance at scale, for students enrolled in any courses where faculty opt to use it.
2. The AI Tutor should provide personalized learning experiences based on faculty course content and faculty instructional approaches.
3. The AI Tutor should support the management and delivery of faculty-driven educational content, as determined and trained by faculty instructional approaches including, but not limited to text, diagrams, lectures, tutorials, quizzes, and interactive exercises.
4. The AI Tutor should provide timely support within existing student workflows and without students having to go outside of the course to seek tutoring support.
5. The AI tutor will reinforce student learning, guide students to additional resources as needed, and develop student ability to master the course material on their own and not be susceptible to students' efforts to short-circuit the learning process by being given answers to questions.
6. The AI Tutor should offer adaptive learning capabilities, adjusting learning paths and content based on student progress, strengths, weaknesses, and learning pace.
7. The AI Tutor should collect and analyze data on student interactions, performance, and learning outcomes to inform instructional decisions, identify trends, and measure effectiveness.
8. The AI Tutor should integrate with campus Learning Management System (LMS) solutions (Brightspace for most SUNY campuses).
9. The AI Tutor should have a clear sustainability plan outlining funding, staffing, and technical resources necessary for long-term operation and maintenance.
10. The AI Tutor should be capable of scaling to accommodate increasing volumes of courses, and student usage, without degradation in performance.
11. A solution would support better student success in courses where faculty opt to use it and be available at all campuses.
12. A solution would comply with all applicable laws and regulations concerning accessibility, privacy, and security.

This advertisement is not a guarantee or promise of funding or future procurement opportunity. Please note this is solely a Solicitation of Interest and does not guarantee an award or contract.

How to Respond

To indicate interest in and eligibility to provide these services, please submit a letter of interest of not more than five (5) pages describing the Responding Vendor’s proficiency and experience in meeting the stated requirements. The document must be submitted via email to AITutor@suny.edu no later than April 4, 2025, at 5:00pm EST.