It’s Not About If — But How: AI in Higher Education Needs a Mindset Shift

2025-07-01

It’s Not About If — But How: AI in Higher Education Needs a Mindset Shift AI isn’t coming to higher education — it’s already here. And yet, only 9% of higher ed CIOs believe their institutions are prepared for it. Why the disconnect? It’s not about lack of tools. It’s about risk aversion and unclear strategy. Few things move as slow as higher education institutions! (Kind of makes sense since universities pretty much have been operating in the same way for over a thousand years!) Faculty and students alike are caught in a double bind: excited about AI’s potential, but unsure how to trust or use it. When institutions fail to clearly communicate why and how AI fits into their mission, resistance grows. But if you give people clear guidance, support, and the space to experiment — that’s when real transformation happens. Opportunity 1: Make AI Part of the Everyday Small pilots are more effective than big mandates. Want buy-in? Start with workflows faculty and staff already use. Use AI to: • Automate routine admin tasks • Make student portals more navigable • Improve reporting or feedback loops When people experience real value, the fear fades — and trust grows. Opportunity 2: Empower Anyone to Create Content Most educators aren’t video editors. They shouldn’t have to be. But they hold specialized and very valuable content that NEEDS to be preserved and shared. It’s not why I built Lupo.ai , but turns out it fits like a glove. Lupo is a platform where subject-matter experts can turn slides, notes, or transcripts into professional-grade training videos with narration, voiceovers, and formatting — in minutes. No studio. No production team. No bottlenecks. Just knowledge turned into content, fast. AI isn’t a threat — it’s a lever. Used well, it helps us do more with less, personalize learning, and close the gaps between content creators, students, and systems. It’s time to stop asking if we should use AI — and start asking how we use it well. Talk to me if you are in the higher ed space! – Xavier https://lnkd.in/eFynxnQt hashtag # HigherEd hashtag # AI hashtag # EducationInnovation hashtag # LupoAI hashtag # Leadership hashtag # EdTech hashtag # DigitalTransformation