

DeVry supports students from course enrollment to completion with Agentforce.
AI agents keep current and prospective students engaged with accurate answers on demand.
AI agents keep current and prospective students engaged with accurate answers on demand.
To remove barriers to education, DeVry needed a faster, easier way for students and staff to find the info they needed.
DeVry University has always believed education should be a ladder to opportunity, not a barrier. A private institution serving more than 32,000 students, DeVry offers flexible online and hybrid educational programs in technology, business, and healthcare.
Their simple but powerful mission to bridge the gap between students’ academic and professional careers is more urgent than ever. DeVry places a strong focus on adult learners with 83% of undergraduates 25 years or older, many of whom are balancing careers, caregiving, and coursework. These learners look toward higher education to provide real-world value, and DeVry is committed to constant innovation and adaptation so that their programs remain relevant as business needs change.
Earlier this year, the university introduced DeVryPro, an AI-powered online learning platform designed to help modern workers adapt to emerging technologies and stay competitive in a rapidly evolving job market. The opportunity for upskilling and reskilling was clear — but so were the challenges. With limited headcount to launch the new learning experience, DeVry knew they needed a way to automate requests for information around the clock and better support these students on their own terms. DeVryPro offers practical, self-paced courses that make lifelong learning both accessible and actionable.
At the same time, DeVry needed a faster, more efficient way to support current students. Although a chatbot could answer basic questions through the student portal, it was limited to a set menu of topics. When students couldn’t find what they were looking for, they contacted their advisors. Many of these inquiries came in after business hours, which meant students had to wait until the next day for answers.
Student onboarding added another layer of pressure. For each eight-week session, an average of 4,700 new students begin their onboarding journey. Preparing new student communications required manually moving lists between DeVry’s learning management system (LMS), student community platform, and Marketing Cloud, a process that could take 11 hours a week and 570 hours a year.
The strain was felt across teams. While staff handled time-consuming uploads and communications, welcome advisors faced a different challenge: data lag. Manual updates meant information could only be updated weekly. Too often, they were calling students who had just completed a task. To keep pace, advisors built workarounds, like logging into the LMS to check real-time information before nudging students. Even then, it wasn’t always easy to ensure learners completed the new student preparation steps on time.
To address both sets of challenges — manual processes for staff and data gaps for advisors — DeVry recognized the need to bring student information together into one seamless system. By doing so, they could create a more responsive student experience while freeing staff to focus on building stronger connections with learners throughout their journey.
Agentforce provides instant answers to prospective DeVryPro students’ inquiries.
With Agentforce, the agentic layer of the Salesforce Platform, prospective DeVryPro learners get instant answers on demand — even outside business hours. Agentforce provides information about courses and the benefits of online learning, keeping prospective learners engaged without requiring staff to support them at all hours — a critical factor in making DeVryPro accessible.
For example, imagine a working professional who wants to learn more about DeVryPro’s AI Essentials for Analysts course. They can start a chat with Agentforce when it’s convenient for them, even after work. Agentforce responds instantly with current information about the courses, enrollment processes and learning experience, all of which is stored directly in the prompt. Rather than hunt for the right information or click through various links on the website, Agentforce provides the answers to all prospective learners’ questions right in the chat.
“As a 24/7, 365 university, our students engage with us around the clock, often when we’re not immediately available,” said Chris Campbell, DeVry’s Chief Information Officer. “Agentforce allows us to meet learners with the communication and support they prefer, wherever and whenever it’s best for them.”
To further simplify enrollment, DeVry launched a website powered by Commerce Cloud for prospective students to find, enroll in, and pay for DeVryPro courses in a self-serve model and with the help of Agentforce chat-based support. Though just launched, Agentforce has already provided timely support in more than 150 conversations.
Agentforce allows us to meet learners with the communication and support they prefer, wherever and whenever it’s best for them.
Chris CampbellChief Information Officer, DeVry
With Agentforce, current students are supported day and night with the answers they need.
Current students will also benefit from Agentforce, which will replace the legacy chatbot in DeVry’s student portal. Agentforce will provide conversational, always-on support that meets the needs of adult learners who often seek help in the evening when student support advisors aren’t available.
Powered by Data Cloud, Agentforce will be able to pull info from unstructured data across DeVry’s student handbook, academic catalog, and career services materials and provide answers about a wide variety of topics. Because the student portal is built on Heroku, which integrates seamlessly with Agentforce and Data Cloud, DeVry will easily be able to add new Agentforce agents and expand the topics and actions of their existing ones. For example, they’re planning an internal student support agent, which will help advisors answer questions for students in upcoming sessions.
“With Data Cloud and Agentforce, we can turn our detailed student data into action,” added Campbell. “We’re excited about the ways it will amplify the care our advisors and faculty provide, enabling even more timely, personalized support.”
If the student asks a nuanced question outside the agent’s scope, Agentforce escalates to a student support advisor with context from the conversation, saving time and providing continuity. This balance allows DeVry’s advisors to focus on higher value advising and outreach, while Agentforce handles routine but essential student support.
With Data Cloud and Agentforce, we can turn our detailed student data into action.
Chris CampbellChief Information Officer, DeVry
Data Cloud unifies DeVry’s data for a connected, real-time view of each student.
“Data Cloud is powerful because it makes it easy to create a unified profile of each student,” noted Karen D’Amico, IT Director, Salesforce, Portal & Mobile Solutions. “Like many education institutions, we face the challenge of multiple systems – both Salesforce apps and others – and Data Cloud makes our integrated data actionable.”
Data Cloud ingests and harmonizes data from Salesforce apps like Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, and Marketing Cloud, along with third-party systems such as DeVry’s LMS and student community platform. By bringing this data together through APIs, pre-built connectors, and zero-copy integrations, Data Cloud provides a real-time, connected view of every student.
This unified profile powers Marketing Cloud, which now automates and tracks the entire onboarding journey for new students. For example, soon after applying new students receive a personalized email inviting them to explore DeVry’s student portal or mobile apps. Once they log in, they have access to new student orientation, a community to connect with peers, and the ability to preview online course materials. DeVry’s data shows that students who complete these steps ahead of time are more likely to succeed in their first class — a crucial advantage in DeVry’s accelerated eight-week sessions, where being ready on day one is critical.
Because Marketing Cloud is fueled by Data Cloud, it helps keep students on track. If a student misses a step, the system automatically sends a personalized reminder email. Since launch, Marketing Cloud has sent 250,000 automated emails, saving advisors time, while Data Cloud’s unified profiles provide real-time insights that enable more personalized, high-impact messaging. Instead of checking off routine onboarding tasks, welcome advisors can now focus on offering indispensable guidance in the enrollment process. This balance of technology and human care has led to a 227 basis point increase in completion rates for new student orientation, given advisors more time to support students, and helped DeVry keep tuition flat for six years.
Like many education institutions, we face the challenge of multiple systems – both Salesforce apps and others – and Data Cloud makes our integrated data actionable.
Karen D’AmicoIT Director - Salesforce, Portal & Mobile Solutions, DeVry
“DeVry’s and Salesforce’s strategies are aligned, making for a strong partnership,” said Campbell. “Salesforce provides a level of flexibility rarely seen in education technology, helping us focus on students’ success, lifelong learning, and each individual’s career and goal aspirations. Innovations like Data Cloud and Agentforce are enabling us to leverage our technology ecosystem more effectively to support our students."
This vision underscores why DeVry has trusted Salesforce for more than 15 years. Rather than simply adopting point solutions, they’ve used Salesforce to help them scale innovation responsibly — transforming both student services and institutional operations. That long-standing partnership sets the stage for DeVry’s evolution into an Agentic Enterprise.
DeVry students engage online around the clock, often when staff are not immediately available. Agentforce not only makes on-demand support possible, it makes it scalable. With a limitless digital workforce, DeVry can offer anytime support without increasing service costs. Plus, Agentforce’s no-code and low-code Agent Builder tools make it fast and easy to build new agents or adjust and expand existing agents. This helps DeVry stay adaptable and flexible as the needs of their business and students change and gives them a competitive edge in meeting the needs of today’s students.
With unified data, modernized systems, and new revenue streams, DeVry is well equipped to close the opportunity gap for higher education today and into the future.
Salesforce provides a level of flexibility rarely seen in education technology, helping us focus on students’ success, lifelong learning, and each individual’s career and goal aspirations.
Chris CampbellChief Information Officer, DeVry
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