Millions of students and parents in China have utilized artificial intelligence (AI) during this year's college application process.
As the use of generative AI for counseling becomes widespread in China, observers suggest it is threatening the 200 billion won college admissions consulting market.
According to the South China Morning Post on July 13, demand for AI to help devise college application strategies surged nationwide after the results of the Gaokao, the equivalent of South Korea's College Scholastic Ability Test, were released late last month.
In China, the Gaokao score, taken by 12.9 million students, serves as the key criterion for determining university admission.
According to Alibaba, more than 14 million users had utilized the college application assistant integrated into its Qwen AI as of the end of June.
Baidu stated that approximately 15 million people used its AI college application assistant.
Tencent also reported that its Yuanbao chatbot responded to approximately 80 million college-related inquiries.
In the past, many families in China, particularly those in the middle class, often sought help from professional consultants to plan their children's college application strategies.
The newspaper noted that those who previously struggled to afford such services due to financial reasons have begun to actively utilize AI.
There is also an assessment that AI is allowing the working class and the middle class to compete on more equal footing.
It has long been pointed out that the disparity in access to the high-priced consulting market in China has caused inequality in college admissions.
Amid this, significantly advanced AI models have emerged as a major variable in China's college admissions market.
According to a recent report by iiMedia Research, the size of China's college admissions consulting market exceeded 1 billion yuan (approximately 220 billion won) last year.
It is projected to expand to 1.22 billion yuan (approximately 270 billion won) by 2027.
However, this report did not account for the variable of AI admissions agents, and there are observations that AI could disrupt this trend.
With the rise of AI admissions agents, some companies have even lowered their professional consulting fees.
Wu Rui, a consultant in Guangzhou, previously offered a general counseling package for 5,000 yuan (approximately 1.11 million won) but recently cut the price to 2,999 yuan (approximately 660,000 won).
However, the newspaper added that since the quality of AI responses can vary depending on one's ability to write and interpret prompts, AI may not be able to completely resolve existing inequality issues.
(Photo: AP, Yonhap News)