Rob Aldridge is a university counsellor at a large international school in Hong Kong, co-counselling approximately 600 students across four grades, with a primary focus on around 300 students in Grades 11 and 12. Each year, he directly supports 35–45 graduating students and manages 400–500 university applications.
No two counselling sessions are alike. Conversations span entry requirements, scholarship strategies, exam preparation, and aligning family expectations with realistic application pathways. Each interaction involves a mix of academic detail, personal context, and long-term planning that needs to be clearly captured and followed up.
Challenges
Rob works across a high-volume student caseload, with each interaction requiring detailed documentation. The scale and variability of conversations made consistency difficult to maintain.
High time cost of documentation
“For every 20 minutes with a student, I was spending about 10 minutes on documentation.”
Across a full timetable, this translated into at least two hours of admin per day, or 8–10 hours per week. Documentation became a significant and recurring part of the workload.
Fragmented documentation workflows
“Notes were often written in fragments and were hard to reconstruct later.”
Documentation was completed in short gaps between meetings and frequently interrupted. This made it difficult to capture the full detail of conversations and reduced the reliability of records over time.
Reduced presence in sessions
“I found myself looking away from students just to capture key points.”
Balancing note-taking with active listening divided attention during sessions. This limited eye contact and made it harder to observe non-verbal cues and respond in the moment.
Solution
Rob first encountered Heidi through an article on AI support in a medical clinic. The concept of ambient documentation and templated outputs resonated with the challenges he was facing in counselling, so he decided to test it in his workflow.
“Now I can focus entirely on the student and trust the conversation is being captured.”
Heidi was integrated into his workflow in less than a day. Over the following weeks, he refined templates to suit different types of counselling sessions.
“I feel far more professional with Heidi supporting my work.”
Today, Rob uses ambient note-taking as the default during sessions, supported by customised templates for milestone conversations such as IBDP course selection, alongside a general template for broader discussions. Students are asked for consent at the start of each session, and once underway, the process requires little active management.
Heidi is now used for:
Capturing counselling conversations through ambient note-taking.
Generating structured meeting notes across different types of sessions.
Creating suggested follow-up emails to students and families.
Applying different templates to the same transcript to surface relevant details.
Maintaining consistent documentation across a large student caseload.
Rob’s top 3 favourite features
Ambient note-taking: capturing conversations during meetings.
Suggested follow-up emails: supporting communication with students and families.
Flexible templates: applying different templates to the same transcript when needed
Impact
“The increase in trust has increased my effectiveness.”
With Heidi, Rob’s workflow has shifted from fragmented, time-intensive documentation to structured, real-time capture. The impact extends beyond efficiency, improving continuity, communication, and the quality of student interactions.
Key outcomes:
8–10 hours of administrative time saved per week.
Documentation completed for 35–45 graduating students annually.
Consistent, structured meeting records across a 300+ student caseload.
Shareable notes reducing repetition in follow-up sessions.
Reduced end-of-day cognitive load and decision fatigue.
Greater confidence when responding to parents and school leadership.
Time returned to core work
“For every 20 minutes with a student, I was spending about 10 minutes on documentation.”
That time is no longer spent writing or reconstructing notes between meetings. It is now redirected into university research, additional student contact, and preparation for more complex application cases.
More complete and usable records
“Notes were often written in fragments and were hard to reconstruct later.”
Capturing notes during the conversation means records are more complete and easier to rely on. Important details are no longer lost or filled in later from memory.
Stronger engagement during meetings
“I found myself looking away from students just to capture key points.”
With documentation handled in the background, Rob can stay focused on the student. This allows him to maintain eye contact and respond more closely to what is being said in the moment.
Follow-up that moves things forward
“By the end of the day, I feel less stressed and more prepared.”
With accurate information readily available, follow-up is more consistent and requires less reconstruction. Students arrive better prepared, allowing conversations to build rather than revisit previous discussions.
At the same time, less time spent remembering and double-checking details reduces overall cognitive load. Rob finishes the day more prepared, with more capacity to focus on supporting students.
What’s Next
“With Heidi, I feel far more professional in how I deliver and document my work.”
Rob recommends Heidi becoming a core tool across his school, as more colleagues begin adopting AI in their workflows. As adoption grows, there is an opportunity to standardise how documentation and communication are handled across teams.
Designing and refining templates has already influenced how key conversations are structured, prompting greater clarity and consistency in milestone meetings.
With documentation handled more efficiently, Rob is able to focus more fully on supporting students, while continuing to build his knowledge of the global higher education landscape.
