Why Higher Ed Must Be Intentional With AI

"Walk into almost any office on a campus right now and you'll hear the same thing: "We're experimenting with AI." Someone is drafting social posts in ChatGPT. Someone else is piloting a chatbot for admissions FAQs. Another is tinkering with predictive models in the CRM. These efforts are well intentioned, but nearly three years into the ready availability of generative AI tools, higher ed needs to understand that dabbling isn't enough anymore."

"Higher education is under immense pressure. From the demographic cliff to the search cliff, the drop in international enrollment to the decline in the public perception of higher education, our industry is fraught with challenges. When we combine these challenges with the escalating expectations from students and families and the "experience economy," we're setting ourselves up to fall dangerously behind."

"When AI adoption is fragmented, several challenges emerge: Duplicated work and tool sprawl. Different units adopt different tools, leading to confusion, inconsistent data and hidden costs. Inconsistent brand voice. Without shared guidelines, AI-generated content can erode the consistency of a university's storytelling. Ethical blind spots. Dabbling often means no governance. Sensitive student data can inadvertently end up in AI tools."

Campuses are running many small generative AI pilots—social-post drafting, admissions chatbots, and predictive CRM models—without institutional coordination. Scattered adoption creates duplicated work, tool sprawl, inconsistent brand voice, ethical blind spots, exposed student data, staff frustration, and lost momentum. Higher education faces demographic declines, falling international enrollment, and weakening public perception that intensify pressure to improve student experience and outcomes. AI offers potential to address these pressures, but only through intentional, governed adoption with shared guidelines, centralized tools, measurable outcomes, and ethical safeguards. Otherwise investments will be wasted and institutions will forfeit AI as a strategic advantage.

Read at Inside Higher Ed | Higher Education News, Events and Jobs