How Colleges and Universities Can Manage Competing AI Priorities

In February, a tool called Einstein went viral among college students. Serving as “a digital proxy for students,” Einstein effectively outsources everything from watching lectures to drafting papers and completing quizzes—essentially a professor’s worst nightmare.

But while tools like Einstein intensify the issue, colleges and universities have been grappling with competing AI priorities for years. Even before ChatGPT was unleashed in 2022, colleges and universities have been juggling four competing priorities:

• Encouraging AI literacy and ensuring that students have the skills to adapt to an AI-driven world.
• Discouraging overreliance on AI among students to facilitate independent thinking and foundational subject matter knowledge.
• Overcoming faculty objections and resistance to AI based on its potential misuse by students and the need for instructors to learn new skills and teaching methods.
• Helping students navigate a changing job market where entry-level jobs are likely to be among the first casualties of AI adoption in the workplace.

To make things even more complicated, there are inherent contradictions among these priorities. For example, how do you teach students to use AI tools without tempting them too much with the siren song of a lightened workload? How do you respond to student questions about a shrinking job market while still encouraging them to embrace AI?

Addressing these questions won’t be easy, but there are a few things that colleges and universities can do to begin that process.

Promote open dialogues

Students and faculty should be given outlets to share their concerns so that the institution can learn about hot-button issues and avoid guesswork about sentiment toward AI. This is one place where higher ed has an advantage given its strong muscle memory in discussion and debate.

Reimagine teaching and learning

One of the potential silver linings in the very cloudy AI skies is that AI might make rote learning and theoretical exercises less prevalent. In turn, students may be given more opportunities to practice experiential learning and a more hands-on approach.

Encourage partnerships

Faculty who are highly skilled in AI can partner with those who need help understanding key concepts and their applications. Institutions can also look outside their campus for expertise and even engage highly skilled students as partners in the classroom.

Commit to continual adaptation

Colleges and universities will need to stay on top of changes in AI so they can remain relevant and responsive to student needs. This won’t happen without resources, and the burden can’t be shouldered by committee members who already have full-time teaching or administrative responsibilities. It may require the addition of a new position or the reinvention of existing roles.

Higher education already faces significant pressure, but AI will accelerate the pace of change on campus and beyond. Institutions that lead the conversation now will be better positioned to shape that evolution rather than react to it.