The UCLA Career Center, is piloting a new AI-powered platform designed to reimagine how students explore careers, develop professional skills, and prepare for life after UCLA. As part of the UCLA Digital & Technology Solutions (DTS ) OpenAI Pilot Program, this early-stage initiative integrates generative AI with UCLA-specific resources to explore how students can receive personalized, real-time support through digital tools tailored to their individual needs.
The Challenge
While UCLA students have access to a robust array of career resources—such as the UCLA Career Guide, Handshake, industry insights, and interview preparation materials—these are often distributed across multiple platforms and formats. Many students expressed a desire for more personalized, accessible support that aligns with their unique academic and career goals. At the same time, campus advisors, faculty, and staff were seeking scalable tools to help meet the growing demand for timely and relevant career guidance in a rapidly evolving job market.
The Pilot Solution
In response, the Career Center launched CareerAI, a pilot tool built on OpenAI’s CustomGPT framework and customized specifically for the UCLA community. This prototype is designed to test the feasibility and impact of using generative AI to support career development. Core features of the pilot include:
- 24/7 access to guidance on exploring career paths, building resumes and cover letters, and preparing for interviews.
- Integration of trusted UCLA resources including the Career Guide, presentation materials and campus-specific tools like Handshake, UCLAOne and department resources into a unified interface.
- Personalized interactions through document uploads and memory-based responses, allowing students to receive tailored feedback on resumes, job descriptions, and specific career goals.
- Ethical prompting guidance that teaches students how to engage effectively with AI tools.
- Student and staff feedback during initial testing helped shape the direction of the pilot. Testers noted that CareerAI’s responses felt aligned with UCLA’s values and tone, and that the platform offered a useful starting point for personalized career exploration.
The Impact So Far
Although still in its pilot phase, CareerAI has shown promising early results:
- Students shared that they appreciated using a tool developed and approved by the UCLA Career Center and felt more confident engaging with career guidance in a familiar, trusted environment.
- The platform extended access to basic career advising beyond typical business hours, meeting students where they are.
- Faculty and staff gained a glimpse into how AI might support student development and career conversations across campus.
- Insights from usage and prompting patterns are helping inform future improvements, scalability, and training needs.
These findings suggest that there is strong interest in expanding access and functionality, and that AI may serve as a valuable complement—not a replacement—for existing services.
What’s Next
As a pilot, CareerAI remains a work in progress. The UCLA Career Center will continue gathering feedback, refining the experience, and evaluating the platform’s role in supporting student success. Plans include broader testing, improvements to infrastructure and user experience, and exploring of platforms that support both accessibility and long-term scalability. This pilot also contributes to UCLA’s broader efforts to build AI fluency and explore responsible, inclusive uses of emerging technologies in education.
Learn More
To follow the progress of CareerAI and learn more about how the UCLA Career Center is exploring the future of AI in student support, visit our website or contact the CareerAI pilot team.
Learn more or explore collaboration opportunities with UCLA Digital & Technology Solutions.
