Colleges are confronting a new discoverability challenge as AI tools increasingly generate direct answers to prospective students. The issue is not visibility in search results alone but whether institutions appear in AI overviews and citations when students ask for degree options or local recommendations. The report describes a practice emerging as “answer-engine optimization” (AEO): colleges can modify content and webpages so that AI systems can reference them accurately. It points to institutional examples including Belmont University, which reported a more than sixfold spike in AI-sourced traffic and measurable conversion actions, and Occidental College, which reported a 96% jump in AI-driven activities on core enrollment pages. Marketing experts say institutions cannot “game” algorithms, but can influence which pages are most useful for AI summarization. Enrollment-consulting leaders also note outcomes are not perfectly measurable yet but trending signals show these changes are correlated with increased AI citations. For higher education institutions, the shift affects enrollment funnels, content governance, and the operational work of ensuring information accuracy in the AI layer used by students during zero-click journeys.