- Over 14 million users tap Qwen amid intense college application season
- Consulting market under pressure as automation reshapes admissions advice
As China enters the peak period for releasing national college entrance exam results, AI chatbots are rapidly gaining traction as tools for students and parents to navigate college admissions decisions.
Data from Alibaba’s AI assistant Qwen shows that since June 7, when the national college entrance exam, or gaokao, began, queries related to gaokao admissions have surged steadily, with daily increases exceeding 100% for five consecutive days in recent periods.
By June 24, more than 14 million users had accessed its gaokao admissions agent for university searches, major selection and application planning—surpassing the 12.9 million students who sat the 2026 national exam.
“The first thing I did after getting my score was to input it (in Qwen) and let AI help me filter schools and majors,” one student from northern China’s Tianjin was quoted as saying in a Chinese media report.
Tasks that previously required days of manual research—such as cut-off scores, program details and application strategies—can now be condensed into preliminary application plans within minutes.
Dominant concern
Career prospects have emerged as the dominant concern among users as China wrestles with high youth unemployment rates in recent years.
Questions such as “Which majors are least likely to become obsolete?”, “Which fields become more valuable with age?”, and “What should I study for better job prospects?” rank among the most frequently asked questions.
Many students are also turning to lifestyle-related queries, including which campuses offer “scenery comparable to tourist attractions.”
The Qwen admissions agent is built on Alibaba’s Qwen model and Quark’s eight years of data experience, offering features such as application reports, planning calendars and Q&A support.
A personalized admissions report can span 15 to 40 printed A4 pages.
Relieving anxiety
Admissions consulting has become one of China’s largest seasonal service markets in June each year.
In the roughly 10 days following exam results, students must sift through information on nearly 3,000 universities and more than 2,000 majors, often under complex province-specific application rules.
In some regions, a single student may need to fill in as many as 112 preferences.
According to iiMedia Research, a market consultancy, China’s paid admissions guidance market reached 1.09 billion yuan ($161 million) in 2025 and is projected to rise to 1.22 billion yuan by 2027.
However, the sector has long been criticized for a mismatch between high prices and inconsistent service quality, with top-tier one-on-one consulting fees ranging from several thousand to nearly 20,000 yuan, iiMedia Research said.
Meanwhile, many practitioners have been exposed for undergoing only brief training and relying heavily on AI-generated templates.
Ending the ‘gold rush’
More importantly, the emergence of AI chatbots has offered an alternative to expensive advisory services, cooling what some observers have described as a “gold rush” to monetize anxieties.
Against this background, agentic AI services like Qwen have emerged as a free and practical tool for addressing admissions-related queries from students and parents.
According to a benchmark report by Yu Soong Lab, an independent education-focused research group, Qwen has reached performance levels comparable to human admissions consultants across multiple indicators.
Specifically, it answered all 44 objective questions correctly with 100% accuracy, and showed strengths in consistency, precision, structured output and efficiency, the study finds.
As more than 20 provinces release scores around June 25, the use of AI admissions tools is expected to expand further. Qwen said it has prepared additional computing resources to handle the surge in demand.
