Ithaka S+R has been partnering with 19 colleges and universities from the U.S and Canada to assess GAI’s impact on higher education and make evidence-based, proactive decisions about how to manage the far-ranging effects of Generative AI (GAI).

As part of this project, Ithaka S+R has been cataloging GAI applications geared towards teaching, learning,
and research in the higher education context - culminating in the release of their Product Tracking tool.

The Product Tracker includes a basic description of each tool, as well as information about the pricing model, key features, and other relevant details such as the large language model (LLM) or datasets behind the tool or background on the vendor. As it would be impossible to track every GAI application that might conceivably be used in higher education contexts, the authors have limited the Tracker to:

• products marketed specifically towards faculty or student use, and
• products that appear to be in active use in teaching, learning, or research activities.

This issue brief is designed to enrich the descriptive data captured in the Product Tracker. In the brief’s first section, the authors provide a typology of existing products and value propositions. In the second, they offer observations about what the product landscape suggests about the future of teaching, learning, and research practices, and speculations on the near-term future of the academic GAI market.