A CENTER FOR DIGITAL EDUCATION THOUGHT LEADERSHIP PAPER

AI on Campus Where Innovation Meets Mission

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have accumulated over decades. AI processes can simplify financial aid applications. Meeting transcription and advanced audio and visual tools make meetings and collaborations more welcoming and accessible.

Operations: Machine learning (ML) can help improve energy efficiency and physical security. IT departments can enhance cybersecurity threat detection and remediation. You can also optimize data analysis, network infrastructure, maintenance, data storage, and project planning and management.

Steps to Get Started

Gather information and insight: Tap in-house AI expertise and consult vendors and community partners to discover what’s possible for your institution — and how to put it into practice.

“All the research groups in higher education have been using forms of ML and AI for several years,” says Daniel Gohl, HP’s chief technology and strategy officer for U.S. state and local government and education. “Institutions must dovetail these in-house skills with expertise they bring in.”

Prepare for change: AI models will evolve constantly, so AI tools must be adaptable for the long haul. For example, emerging AI software will help campus communities communicate and collaborate in hybrid style using the channels, devices and locations they prefer. New AI-enhanced laptops, PCs and workstations will support future-proofing as AI software continues to change.

Assess built-in capabilities: Campus leaders need a complete picture of their current technology ecosystem to keep their AI efforts mission aligned.

Among the complications: Many software vendors are already building AI into their products, so institutions

AI is already reshaping higher education. But how can institutions make sure the technology stays aligned with their mission?

That’s the question higher education leaders must explore before adopting AI technologies. The best way to answer it is with a three-pronged approach:

1. Map out specific challenges to address. 2. Research opportunities and use cases that make

the most sense for your unique needs. 3. Follow proven guidance for successful on-campus

AI adoption.

“When used intentionally, AI helps leaders better align limited resources with mission priorities, improve service delivery and sustain institutional capacity in an increasingly complex operating environment,” says Brian Cohen, vice president of the Center for Digital Education (CDE) and former longtime IT executive in New York City and the City University of New York.

Real-World AI Opportunities

Learning: Instructors can automate processes like generating a syllabus or creating a form for submitting grades. AI translators improve inclusion in classrooms, laboratories and online collaborations. Additionally, students can benefit from capabilities that expand beyond basic chatbots to offer personalized learning assistance.

Leadership: AI gives executives ways to improve risk management and make planning and strategy more effective. A general counsel’s office, for instance, could use AI tools to assess potential legal liabilities and quickly analyze the nuances of litigation.

Administration: AI can strengthen cybersecurity and modernize core operations such as advising, finance, HR and IT, where inefficiencies and capacity constraints

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must guard against privacy or compliance breaches. Because legacy IT hardware often isn’t suited to running AI workloads, IT leaders should consider investing in equipment with chipsets that include neural processing units.

Address cloud costs: With AI workloads piling up in remote data centers, institutions face increasing cloud costs. Researchers in sensitive areas like security and defense might not want their AI operating remotely. Many useful AI apps require streaming data access, which means network latency may degrade the user experience in tools like generative AI.

“The place for generation compute is on the edge, not in the cloud,” Gohl says.

Key Strategies

“Ensuring the equitable and ethical use of AI depends on having an overall human-centric philosophy,” says Jim A. Jorstad, a CDE senior fellow and former IT leader at University of Wisconsin-La Crosse. “We should use AI to augment our human capabilities, not merely replace them.”

To stay aligned with its mission, higher education must:

Establish oversight: Assign an executive sponsor with broad AI responsibilities. Use governance to encourage responsible exploration of AI capabilities. Policies must proactively address fairness and equity to reduce the risk of bias. Governance should provide clear AI development guidelines that are consistently reviewed and updated. Create human-in-the loop workflows to ensure AI accountability and accuracy.

Tackle specific challenges: “All too often, managers have led with how, rather than why,” says Alan Shark, a senior

fellow with the Center for Digital Government and former executive director of the Public Technology Institute.

Assess where you need the most help and why AI is the best path to improvement. For example, look for opportunities to reduce friction or wait times for users. Create timelines and cadences for adding new services.

Encourage adoption: Support experimentation within well-defined guardrails. Create an environment that encourages, enables and rewards people making progress with early AI use cases. Provide guidance and training on issues like AI ethics and data protection. Highlight success among students and instructors to establish trust and credibility.

Improve capacity: Start investing in AI-enabled hardware and software now to ensure readiness when AI becomes fully mainstream across higher education.

“Building the capacity now is like laying out the utilities in housing development,” Gohl says. “You can’t build the houses and then lay the electric and water lines.”

Conclusion

AI’s rapid evolution presents higher education with both an inflection point and an opportunity. Institutions that approach AI as a mission-driven strategy will be best positioned to enhance learning, strengthen operations and build long-term resilience.

“Ensuring the equitable and ethical use of AI depends on having an overall human-centric philosophy.” — Jim A. Jorstad, Senior Fellow, Center for Digital Education

This piece was written and produced by the Center for Digital Education Content Studio, with information and input from HP Inc and Intel Corporation.

Sponsored by HP Inc and Intel Corporation

HP Inc. is a technology company that believes one thoughtful idea has the power to change the world. Its product and service portfolio of personal systems, printers, and 3D printing solutions helps bring these ideas to life.

www.hp.com/HPSolutions-StateandLocalGov

Intel Corporation is a company with the purpose to create world-changing technology that improves the life of every person on the planet.

www.intel.com

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Produced by the Center for Digital Education

The Center for Digital Education is a national research and advisory institute specializing in K-12 and higher education technology trends, policy and funding. The Center provides education and industry leaders with decision support and actionable insight to help effectively incorporate new technologies in the 21st century.

www.centerdigitaled.com

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