Case Study: Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design scales admissions with Element451 AI Agents

How MIAD scaled admissions with Element451's AI Agents

Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design (MIAD) needed a better way to manage admissions as student expectations, financial aid complexity, and compliance demands grew beyond what its homegrown system could handle. After a brief, unsatisfying attempt with Slate, the lean eight-person team turned to Element451 and its AI-driven CRM and Bolt Agents to replace a manual, hard-to-scale process.

With Element451, MIAD automated routine tasks like transcript collection, financial aid reminders, and event outreach, while also consolidating communications and reducing reliance on separate tools like SlideRoom. The result was less staff time spent on follow-up, faster student responses, higher completion rates, lower tech costs, and a foundation for expanding AI use into IT tasks and student success support.

Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design

Mark Fetherston

Vice President for Enrollment Management