AI Pathfinder Pro

I am in the process of evaluating a suite of AI tools from Contact North, Ontario, for students, instructors and administrators.

Contact North offers a suite of six AI tools for teachers/instructors. In five previous posts, I evaluated

In this post, I will examine another tool for students, AI Pathfinder Pro. This is quite a detailed review so you might first want to jump to the conclusions at the end of this post. 

What does Pathfinder Pro do?

Pathfinder Pro allows anyone to plan their post-secondary education and explore career opportunities in Canada., through the use of a bot which asks questions to guide the user to appropriate information. In other words, it’s like a career guide.

When you log in, you get the following:

Hi, I’m AI Pathfinder Pro! I’m here to help you plan your post-secondary education and explore career opportunities in Canada. Ask me anything—from in-demand jobs in your region to training programs, education options, salaries, or emerging opportunities. Or, try a sample question below to get started.

The three sample questions are as follows:

  • What are the top ten in demand jobs in Canada?
  • I am thinking of changing careers. Where do I start?
  • Which colleges or universities provide co-op opportunities?

What I did

I tested two different scenarios:

  • I posed as a male high school student in Vancouver wondering what to do when I leave school
  • I posed as a female in the auto industry in Ontario who has just lost her job and wants to start a new career.

The high school student scenario: video games design

I asked what the 10 most in-demand  jobs were in Canada. It gave me a list, and second on the list was ‘software developers’ (top was nurse practitioners).

It then said if I was interested in a specific job or career, it can provide information on relevant courses or programs, so I typed in ‘video games designer’. It then gave me seven (generic) course titles, and a list of five qualifications, ranging from diploma to masters degree. I chose Bachelor of Fine Arts in Game Design. The bot told me this is a great path for aspiring game designers and gave me:

  • a ‘typical’ curriculum overview
  • typical admission requirements
  • likely duration of program
  • potential institutions offering the program
  • career outcomes.

Under potential institutions it listed four institutions, including Simon Fraser University in British Columbia.

I asked the bot for more information on Simon Fraser University and gave me specific information on curriculum overview, admission requirements, likely duration of program, etc. However, it did not provide a link or url. It asked me if I wanted more information on SFU’s program but decided I wanted a shorter program that I could take in two years. It gave me a range of diploma options in video games design, but none in BC.

It asked if I wanted more information on any of these specific programs, but I asked if there was anything in British Columbia. It then offered me a choice of five two-year diploma programs in BC (including Victoria University of Wellington, which is actually in New Zealand), so I chose BCIT’s game development program. It asked if I wanted more information on the program and I asked: how do I apply?

It then gave me some steps on how to apply which were generic and would apply to most Canadian colleges, but what it didn’t do – and what I wanted – was to give me the url for the application to the specific program I was interested in.

This is when I started to run into difficulties, partly due to the unfriendly nature of the BCIT admissions process, but also because the name of the Pathfinder program recommendation didn’t actually match the titles of the BCIT programs. To be fair, deciding on the exact program is what applicants would have to do anyway, but in the long run, it would be useful (but perhaps not practical) for university and college admission systems to be synchronised with such AI systems, so that applicants are ‘guided’ to the most suitable courses (much like hotel search sites guide you to the hotel that best matches your criteria.) But Pathfinder did land me in the right territory. I just had to walk over the bridge.

The unemployed worker scenario

Unfortunately, as a result of Trump’s tariffs, this is likely to be an all too familiar scenario in Canada. I am assuming an experienced and well-trained auto worker based in Windsor, Ontario, who wants to start her own car oil and tire servicing company somewhere in Ontario.

To the opening question from the bot, I chose I am thinking of changing careers. Where do I start? The bot started with giving some generic advice (and encouragement) about changing careers, such as self-assessment and networking, then asked if I had a specific career in mind. I answered: Starting my own business. It then provided eight generic steps, such as doing market research and choosing an appropriate legal structure, then asked if I had a specific industry in mind for my business. I answered Car oil and tire services. It again provided some generic steps to starting a business, such as developing a business plan and choosing an appropriate location, then offered a range of education and training programs:

  1. Automotive Service Technician Programs: Many public colleges offer diploma programs that cover essential skills for working in auto service.
  2. Business Administration Programs: Courses in business management or entrepreneurship can help you understand the business aspects of running your service center.
  3. Specialty Courses: Look for specific training in tire servicing, oil changes, and general automotive maintenance offered by local colleges or trade schools.

It also offered a choice of three colleges offering programs related to automotive services. It asked if I wanted any more tailored information and I asked about business administration programs in the Windsor area. It offered four programs, three local and an online program from Centennial College, which is physically located in Scarborough, just north of Toronto.

I chose business administration from Centennial, because an online program would allow me to find a temporary job, and it gave me useful information about their two-year online program which would provide me with a range of very useful business requirements, then told me to contact Centennial College’s website for application details (again, no url supplied).

My evaluation

1. Target group (Scale 0-5)

Is it clear who should make use of these tools and for what purpose? 

This is a very relevant tool for both high school students undecided about what they want to do, and people wanting to change career in mid-life. However, I am not sure either would think of going to Contact North’s web site for this. CN should publicise this tool to career advisors  and organisations designed to support small businesses to make sure the intended audience is aware of this tool. As it is equally valuable to anyone in Canada, it should also be publicised in other provinces – for instance by BCcampus in British Columbia

I give this a score of 4 out of 5 on this criterion.

2. Ease of use (Scale: 0-10)

  • Is it easy to find/log in? Yes, this was an easy tool to use. It takes you through all the steps and leaves you in a very good place in terms of what you are looking for. 
  • Does it provide the necessary information quickly? Yes, all the answers came in a second or so – faster than I could think! 
  • Is it easy to make use of the questions and answers it provides? Users can copy and transfer each session to a Word or similar document for later use, but there is no instruction for students on how to do this. They will need to work this out for themselves. Users will find a full record of the transactions useful. The only missing piece is direct links to college and university admission sites. Urls would be very useful here. I think some co-ordination/integration with university and college admissions offices so that users can go directly from the bot into the admissions process would benefit both users and the institutions.

I give ease of use a score of 7 out of 10. 

3. Validity and comprehensiveness of information provided

  • How valid and comprehensive was the information provided, given the topic? Once again I was blown away by the range and depth of the information provided. I was particularly impressed with the whole-of-Canada application. There was just one mistake I found (The University of Victoria in Wellington) but that made it more relatable!
  • Does it provide relevant follow-up questions or activities? It does the Q and A well. When I reached the end of the Q & A I felt well satisfied. The only thing I would have added is a suggestion to talk to someone in the institution’s admissions office before enrolling and paying to ensure that the program is suitable for the applicant’s goals, given the importance of the decision the user will be making.

I am giving this 9 out of 10, mainly for the comprehensiveness of the responses.

4. Likely outcomes (Scale: 0-10)

  • users will end up finding what they want from this site. I think that for many users, this will provide the information they are looking for. However, I am not a professional career counsellor, and I would like their response to this. Changing careers in particular is not just a case of making logical decisions but requires self-awareness and confidence-building. Although it does provide encouragement, I would like the bot to have taken more account of the likely nervousness or uncertainty that users might feel about making such important decisions about their future and provided more ‘soft’ psychological guidance – so again, although this is a very useful tool, it may not be enough on its own for some users. It’s likely to be more useful for those that have a clear idea about what they want to do with their lives, but may not help those who are more lost or uncertain. 
  • motivates the user. It motivated me. I found the guidance from the bot helpful and logical and was not bored at all in using it.

Total score: 8 out of 10

5. Transparency (Scale: 0-5)

Where do the topics come from? Who says? Does it provide references, facts or sources to justify the recommendations? What confidence can I have in the information provided? 

Difficult to asses again. Everything made sense to me, but I have no idea where all the information came from (institutional web sites?). Links to relevant admission web sites and pages would have been most welcome, but also this is more of a problem of institutional web sites not being end-user friendly and clear about what they are offering and their specific requirements, than the bot. I have to give this 1 out of 5 though for transparency.

6. Ethics and privacy (0-5)

I saw no issues here. Users are not asked for personal information or to register and the bot uses information that is (or should be) publicly available

I give this a score of 5 out of 5.

7. Overall satisfaction (Scale: 0-10)

This review would have been better done by someone who needs the information this tool provides. I don’t have skin in the game, but for both my mythical users, the tool seemed to me to be incredibly useful.

I was reminded of the career advice I had at grammar school in England when I was doing my A-levels. ‘Go to the school library and find a box marked University Admissions. Throw out any university prospectus that isn’t Oxford or Cambridge. Assume you will get the grades you need, especially in Latin.  When you’ve found a suitable program, send in a written application, then when you have your grades, let them know.’ That was it, which is why I didn’t get into university (and not Oxbridge) until several miserable years later. I just wish this tool had been around then.

So I give this a 9 out of 10 in terms of satisfaction, although people with better access to good career guidance might think differently

Overall evaluation

I give this a total score of 43 out of 55 – roughly 78%. This is a very useful tool for helping people make career decisions. It is easy to use, comprehensive in the resources it makes available and the geographical coverage in Canada, and is motivating to use. It lost a few point at the interface with university and college admission systems and on transparency, could have been stronger on helping with personal and psychological issues many users are likely to be struggling with, and needs to be publicised well beyond Contact North’s boundaries, but these do not take away from the likely value for most users trying to decide on their future. Above all, this is a great use of AI in education.

Over to you

Have you used this tool? How useful was it to you? What are the drawbacks? Please use the comment box at the end of this blog post.

Up next

My last evaluation of these tools. I will be assessing the tool AI Trades Explorer Pro within the next few days.

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