Hispanic-Serving Institutions, Community Colleges, and Artificial Intelligence Chatbots: A Systematic Review and Interaction with HSI Community College Websites

Objective/Research Questions: Extending Garcia’s notion of servingness, our study explored the prevalence and usability of artificially intelligent (AI) chatbots within all 234 HSI community colleges according to the most recent HACU list. The research questions for our study are: (a) Do HSI community colleges embed artificial intelligence in the form of chatbots into their websites to facilitate access to information? and (b) To what extent do HSI community college chatbots respond to the needs of Spanish-speaking stakeholders? Methods: We utilized a mixed-methods approach where we explored each institution’s website to locate possible chatbot integration. Once we reviewed each home page, we employed a binary coding strategy (0 = no, no chatbot 1 = yes, chatbot integrated). Then, we interacted with each chatbot—first in English and then in Spanish—during normal business hours to explore their level of interaction and coded these interactions. Results: Findings suggest HSI community colleges rarely utilize AI chatbots, and when they do, they often do not facilitate access to Spanish-language information nor provide the option to chat with a Spanish-speaking human agent. Conclusions/Contributions: Few studies have explored how higher education institutions use chatbots to facilitate access to information, and even fewer studies explore linguistic equity of these AI chatbots. Our findings contribute to research on the use of AI chatbots within community colleges and HSI servingness, specifically demonstrating how providing Spanish and bilingual resources and services through AI chatbots can enhance servingness.