ETS announced it will acquire ACT, the college readiness and career assessment provider that also runs the ACT exam. ETS said the combination is positioned to support long-term assessment roadmap work, including rising use of AI for test-item generation and adaptive delivery. The move also has potential implications for the roughly 1.38 million students taking the ACT annually and the states that use ACT as an official state assessment. ETS emphasized that in the near term administration and questions would remain business as usual for this year’s test-takers. ETS described opportunities to apply AI capabilities in assessment contexts, including remote proctoring and adaptive assessments. ACT leadership said joining ETS enables scaling built capabilities within a broader “readiness” vision, and ETS also flagged technical and vocational skills as a potential product focus. For colleges and admissions leaders, the acquisition affects assessment ecosystems, scheduling, and how institutions interpret test comparability amid a shift toward skills-based measures.