The Next Generation of SIS: Learner-Centered & AI-Powered

What if an SIS could extend beyond transactional to a transformational system? What if it could incorporate each student’s life and career goals, while simultaneously streamlining critical processes for staff?

Our initial release of modular SIS capabilities marks a significant milestone to help institutions modernize academic operations. Education Cloud empowers institutions to create and manage various types of learning programs that better connect the key skills and competencies students will gain upon completion. With a seamless registration experience, students can easily find classes, check availability, confirm eligibility, and enroll. Once enrolled, they are proactively supported every step of the way, from holistic advising to intelligent degree planning. A key development of our next-gen SIS capabilities is an extensible rules engine, enabling staff to design and implement auditable academic policies at scale without needing to write code.

Modernized user experiences start with unified data. Disconnected and trapped data creates several downstream challenges for education institutions. Findings from the Salesforce Connected Education Report show that 53% of staff still struggle to find the data they need to do their job effectively. With an incomplete view of each learner and their unique journey, it’s difficult to improve outcomes across enrollment, student retention and satisfaction, fundraising, and engagement.

Our approach to building a next-gen SIS is centered on utilizing all of the capabilities of our deeply unified platform. At the heart of it is Education Cloud, which provides a flexible data foundation for lifelong learning, helping staff scale impact institution-wide. Education Cloud includes purpose-built modules for Recruitment and Admissions, Academic Operations, Student Success, and Advancement and Alumni Relations that help institutions consolidate disparate point solutions and connect every touchpoint across the learner journey.

The power of Salesforce for Education extends beyond Education Cloud. Salesforce Data Cloud plus MuleSoft help institutions seamlessly integrate, unify, and harmonize existing structured and unstructured data–LMS engagement, HR, finance, and more. Because Data Cloud empowers institutions to activate all of that data in Education Cloud, institutions can maintain and reinforce their current data strategy while enabling staff to predict needs, securely take action with AI-powered insights, and deliver truly personalized engagement. This is at the core of our deeply unified platform approach to a modern SIS–it’s designed for continuous improvement.

AI isn’t an afterthought or something to bolt on with APIs. For the last decade, Salesforce has pioneered artificial intelligence. With extensive investment in industry-specific automation, predictive intelligence and analytics, and generative and agentic AI, we continue to lead the way. In fact, Agentforce for Education is critical to transforming how data can be actioned in ways that a traditional SIS isn’t capable of.

Research shows students and staff already see the value AI agents can bring to every aspect of the education journey. Agentforce can assist students with 24/7 support, from the admissions to course registration process. And with AI agents embedded in the flow of work, staff can gain time back to focus on building stronger relationships. Taking advantage of a deeply unified platform that connects data and AI agents makes it possible to create the experiences constituents expect now and into the future.

An institution’s data is not our product, and trust remains our #1 value. As early adopters and leaders in the space, we’ve helped shape policies around responsible AI. Education Cloud allows you to comply with global regulations and industry standards. Salesforce helps to enable compliance with the Einstein Trust Layer and built-in guardrails. And with new innovations 3x/year, the platform is constantly evolving to meet future challenges and opportunities.