Andrew Rosen, CEO, Kaplan
May 2026 — In an interview with Invest:, Andrew Rosen, chairman and CEO of Kaplan, spoke about how one of the world’s most recognized education brands is navigating the pressures reshaping higher education, from AI adoption to shifting immigration policy. “The winning model isn’t all AI or all human. It’s combining the two in a way that improves outcomes for students,” Rosen noted, outlining a strategy that pairs technological scale with the irreplaceable value of human instruction.
What do you see as Kaplan’s next major transformation over the next few years?
The biggest force shaping our industry right now — and really all industries — is AI. But in education, it’s entering a landscape that’s already under significant pressure. Higher education is dealing with funding constraints, political and regulatory shifts, changing public perceptions, and growing expectations around outcomes. People are concerned about what they’re paying, and institutions are focused on what they’re spending. Toss AI into that environment, and you have something that is both an enormous opportunity and, for many institutions, an intimidating development.
At Kaplan, we are focused on becoming an AI-first organization, but we’ve always been a very human-centered company. That’s core to who we are, both as a place to work and as a place to serve students and partners. Our approach is to use AI to enhance, not replace, the human experience. Kaplan was in fact founded by a tutor, so we recognize there is something about the relationship between a teacher and a student that has a real magic to it — something AI can’t fully replicate. But AI can enhance that relationship in powerful ways: 24/7 support, unlimited practice, immediate feedback, things that simply weren’t scalable before. We really feel strongly that the winning model isn’t all AI or all human. It’s combining the two in a way that improves outcomes for students.
We’ve navigated transitions like this before: the move to digital, the rise of the internet, earlier waves of technology. Being a long-term-oriented company means those lessons remain part of our DNA, through the many people who have been here for decades. Institutions that effectively embrace AI are going to be successful. Those that turn their back on it are going to be in trouble.
How is Kaplan adapting its offerings to meet the needs of a rapidly changing job market?
For a long time, there was resistance within higher education to the idea that institutions are in the business of job training. But there’s now a broader recognition that a liberal arts education and a workforce-ready education are not mutually exclusive. We conducted a survey a few years ago asking parents whether they’d rather their child have a degree from Harvard or a job at Google. The response was pretty strong: people said they’d rather their kid had the great job than the great degree. That’s a powerful statement. It reflects a growing expectation that education should deliver real outcomes. And when we asked whether people would rather have a degree or a certificate demonstrating a specific skill (like coding or cybersecurity), most said they want both. That’s the sweet spot, and that’s where education is finally moving.
That goes directly to Kaplan’s strengths. We’ve always viewed ourselves as essentially the fastest path to the results that matter. When students come to Kaplan, they typically have a specific goal in mind, whether that’s passing a test, achieving a desired score, earning a degree, or developing a skill. Our job is to get them there directly. In our higher education programs, we’re focused on a direct path to skills that translate in the workplace. The same person may want different things at different points in their life, but when they want to move quickly and purposefully, that’s when they come to us.
What are universities struggling with most today, and how is Kaplan positioned to help?
As universities face funding pressures, political headwinds, and rising expectations around outcomes, we’re seeing what I’d describe as a flight to quality and stability. Institutions under pressure are looking for partners they can rely on — partners who can help them deliver high-quality education more efficiently and with better results. That’s where we come in. We can’t solve all the political issues they’re dealing with, but we can help them do what they’re trying to do at their core: serve students effectively, at scale, and with discipline.
Our approach — AI doing everything it can do well, so our people can focus on judgment, coaching, and supporting students — is where we see real improvement in outcomes. That combination of human and AI is what makes Kaplan an attractive partner for universities right now.
How do you balance serving individual learners versus enterprise clients, and where do you see the greatest growth opportunity?
Individual learners and enterprise clients are more aligned than you might expect. Whether we’re working with a company, a university, or a state government, what our partners ultimately want is the same thing: to help their students or employees be more successful. Companies want their people to be better at their jobs. Universities want their students prepared for the workforce. States want a stronger talent pipeline.
One program I’m particularly proud of is our All-Access model, where we make the full range of Kaplan programs available to all students within a university or company, so students have access regardless of whether they have the individual resources. Last year we expanded this model to a statewide level, so it levels the playing field and improves workforce readiness across a broad geography. It also generates something valuable for the state itself: early signal data on what students are pursuing, sometimes years before the state would otherwise know. That helps them align their programs with actual workforce demand, whether they need more nursing graduates, more HVAC technicians, or something else entirely. It improves access, strengthens workforce readiness, and helps students move more directly into higher-demand careers.
How do you define success for students today, and how has that changed?
Kaplan does something unusual in education: I personally chair regular learning reviews across each of our business units. Just as we hold financial and risk reviews, we hold ourselves accountable to learning outcomes. Each unit has to articulate clearly what its students want, what the metrics show, and what programs are in place to keep improving. We’ve been doing this formally for more than a decade, and it keeps us getting better. That’s quite atypical within the education world.
I think this discipline comes from our roots as a test preparation company, where outcomes are everything. In much of education, you teach and assume the rest is up to the student. It’s in our DNA that the only thing that matters is what students actually learn and how they can apply it. That cultural attribute is something we continue to lean into — and as we do, it enables us to keep becoming more effective as an educator.
Is there anything else shaping Kaplan’s outlook that you’d like to address?
One of our biggest challenges right now is the uncertainty around immigration and visa policy. We bring an enormous number of students into the United States, the U.K., Australia, Canada, Singapore, and other countries, and we’ve seen meaningful declines in international student flows to key Western markets over the last year or so, driven by policy changes and broader geopolitical dynamics. This has real implications not just for us, but for universities and local economies around the world.
Our partners are generally performing better than the broader market, in part because we’re working closely with them to navigate these conditions, and in part because our diversification helps. We operate across multiple geographies and business lines, so we’re not dependent on any single market. Students who previously might have come to the United States or Australia are now coming to us in Singapore — we redirect rather than lose them. The underlying global demand for high-quality education hasn’t changed. The path has been uneven, and last year brought more headwinds than tailwinds, but the long-term trajectory remains strong.
