TechnologyOne’s new app, called Guide, sits on top of its existing university systems and acts as a single conversational interface for students to access information. Instead of loading those AI costs into licence fees, the $9.17bn Brisbane-based software group builds advertising into the experience and shares that income with each campus.
Under its model, 15% of total ad revenue, not just profit, flows back to the participating institution, reframing AI as a potential income source rather than a pure expense. The structure is pitched squarely at universities that want cutting-edge AI tools but are wary of the compute bills that usually come with them.
Guide differs from earlier self-service tools because it relies on “agentic” AI components, which break student requests into smaller tasks and run them against large language models billed by tokens. TechnologyOne already hosts systems for more than two million students without charging universities directly for compute, but each token-based interaction inside Guide now carries a measurable cost every time a student asks a question.
Advertising revenue is designed to offset that new variable spend, allowing institutions to expand AI access without facing unpredictable infrastructure charges. The approach echoes broader experimentation in the AI sector, where groups such as OpenAI are also piloting advertisements after previously signalling they would avoid that route.
