High school districts are beginning to pilot AI-powered college counseling tools aimed at easing procedural bottlenecks for overwhelmed counselors. Reporting describes an AI counseling approach built specifically with expert-provided answers and structured guidance, rather than relying on open-ended general-purpose AI that could produce misinformation. The goal is to help students navigate admissions steps and time-intensive questions about college costs and credentials. Counselors emphasized that human guidance remains irreplaceable for individualized decision-making, but the pilots focus on freeing counselors from repetitive logistics so they can spend more time on academic, social, and financial planning conversations.