Practically two years after generative synthetic intelligence exploded into the general public consciousness, simply 9 p.c of chief expertise officers imagine higher training is ready to deal with the brand new expertise’s rise.
That’s certainly one of a number of key takeaways from Inside Higher Ed’s third annual Survey of Campus Chief Technology/Information Officers, executed with assist from Hanover Analysis earlier this yr. The outcomes launched Wednesday supply a portrait of how faculties and universities are—and aren’t—utilizing expertise to boost studying, work and analysis in an period of quickly evolving digital innovation.
About two out of three CTOs mentioned the digital transformation of their establishment is important (23 p.c) or a excessive precedence (39 p.c). And most are involved about AI’s rising affect on higher training, with 60 p.c anxious to a point concerning the threat generative AI poses to tutorial integrity, particularly.
Regardless of ongoing fear from directors and educators that AI will increase cheating, 46 p.c of CTOs are both extraordinarily or very captivated with AI’s potential to spice up their establishment’s capabilities, in keeping with the report.
However that doesn’t essentially translate to institutional enthusiasm for prioritizing digital transformation or investing in AI expertise. CTOs imagine different senior leaders at their establishment are much less seemingly than they’re to view digital transformation as a prime precedence. And never fairly one in 4 mentioned investing in synthetic intelligence is a necessary (1 p.c) or excessive (22 p.c) precedence for their establishment.
Nonetheless, this is a rise from Inside Higher Ed’s 2023 CTO survey, when simply 16 p.c of CTOs described investing in AI as a prime precedence for their establishment.
“Persons are warming as much as the concept,” mentioned Ravi Pendse, chief info officer on the College of Michigan, “however there’s additionally some people who find themselves passionately against it, and that’s OK.”
He likened the adoption of AI to the rise of smartphones within the early 2010s: Whereas some individuals nonetheless use flip telephones in 2024, nearly all of individuals now use a smartphone as a result of its capabilities—reminiscent of rideshare and banking apps—make each day duties simpler and extra environment friendly.
“The wonderful thing about a college tradition is that nobody is going to power you to make use of [AI], however college students are actually utilizing it, so establishments could as effectively get onboard,” Pendse mentioned.
Extra on the Survey
Inside Higher Ed’s third annual Survey of Campus Chief Expertise/Info Officers was performed by Hanover Analysis. The survey included 82 chief expertise and data officers, largely from private and non-private nonprofit establishments, for a margin of error of 11 p.c. The response charge was 5 p.c. Obtain the complete report here.
On Wednesday, Nov. 13, at 2 p.m. Jap, Inside Higher Ed will current a free webcast to debate the outcomes of the survey. Register for that here. The 2024 Survey of Campus Chief Expertise/Info Officers was made potential by assist from HelioCampus, Jenzabar and Grammarly.
Enterprise-Stage AI Approaches Lag
However the adoption of AI expertise varies in scale and scope.
Virtually half of CTOs who responded to the survey agreed that their establishment locations extra emphasis on fascinated by AI for particular person use circumstances than on fascinated by AI at an enterprise degree. Fifty p.c of CTOs mentioned their establishment is utilizing it to create digital chat bots and assistants, which was the most well-liked utility.
That aligns with what presidents, provosts and chief business officers reported in their very own Inside Higher Ed surveys, which additionally confirmed that chat bots and digital assistants are the most typical use of AI by faculties and universities.
The CTO survey discovered that the most well-liked purposes of AI after chat bots included enhancements of cybersecurity (35 p.c), predictive analytics for pupil efficiency and tendencies (27 p.c), analysis and knowledge evaluation (24 p.c), and studying administration methods (20 p.c).
Solely 3 p.c of establishments use AI for services administration or creating customized studying pathways; 11 p.c use it for institutional planning and decision-making, pupil engagement, and fundraising; 17 p.c use it for admissions and administration processes (reminiscent of scheduling and useful resource allocation); 14 p.c use it for pupil advising and assist; and 12 p.c use it for grading and evaluation.
Some 18 p.c of CTOs mentioned their establishment doesn’t use AI for any of these functions.
“Every establishment has totally different ranges of sources, each monetary and technical. When these new applied sciences come up, it’s a lot simpler to implement a small cluster right here and a small cluster there,” Pendse mentioned, noting that the College of Michigan is certainly one of a handful of establishments that has already integrated AI into numerous universitywide functions, together with these associated to instructing, studying and analysis.
These efforts had been guided by a report produced by the college’s generative AI committee in 2023, which aimed “to set the stage for the [University of Michigan] neighborhood and society at giant to harness the transformative advantages of GenAI, whereas concurrently mitigating its inherent dangers.”
Pendse, who led the committee alongside Michigan’s provost, mentioned buy-in from college management is essential to scaling AI expertise. “As soon as they’re aligned, you possibly can have enterprise-level conversations,” he mentioned.
Whereas most CTOs considerably (38 p.c) or strongly (50 p.c) agree that their central IT division has discovered efficient methods to achieve out and companion with different areas of the establishment, greater than half of CTOs agree, considerably (37 p.c) or strongly (20 p.c), that senior directors at their establishment deal with the central IT unit extra like a utility than a strategic companion.
What’s extra, most establishments don’t have the identical sources as Michigan, which had a $17.9 billion endowment in 2023, to discover how AI expertise can work to their bigger, long-term profit.
Nonetheless, 61 p.c of CTOs mentioned their establishment skilled no central info expertise funds cutbacks in 2023–24. Most CTOs count on their 2024–25 central IT funds to be about the identical as final yr’s, if not higher, with about half of CTOs reporting their establishment’s annual IT operations and providers funds to be between $1 million and $5 million.
Nonetheless, that is probably not sufficient for faculties and universities to undertake large-scale AI approaches.
AI is nonetheless a comparatively rising or creating functionality for establishments, and many people are nonetheless attempting to determine what the most effective use circumstances and largest dangers are with utilizing these applied sciences.”
—Mark McCormack, senior director of analysis and insights at Educause
Based on a latest AI landscape study from Educause, the skilled affiliation for higher ed IT professionals, few establishments had AI-related acceptable use insurance policies in place, and even fewer establishments had carried out workforce modifications to accommodate the staffing wanted to assist enterprisewide capabilities.
“AI is nonetheless a comparatively rising or creating functionality for establishments, and many people are nonetheless attempting to determine what the most effective use circumstances and largest dangers are with utilizing these applied sciences,” Mark McCormack, senior director of analysis and insights at Educause, wrote in an e-mail. “Establishments might want to construct up their insurance policies and institution-wide governance, strengthen their infrastructure (together with required workers, funds, and applied sciences), and enhance workers, college, and pupil AI literacy as vital subsequent steps in evolving and maturing on this space.”
The findings of Inside Higher Ed’s CTO survey assist that concept, exhibiting that greater than half of CTOs say their establishment hasn’t adopted a coverage or pointers within the areas of instruction, administrative duties, pupil providers and analysis help. Simply 12 p.c of CTOs reported that their establishment has a complete coverage overseeing AI safety and ethics, and 29 p.c mentioned they’ve pointers for utilizing AI in instruction, reminiscent of tutoring and content material era.
A plurality of CTOs (48 p.c) additionally mentioned their establishment doesn’t have sustainability objectives associated to expertise use. Simply 5 p.c say their establishment’s use of AI has elevated its carbon footprint/electrical energy use significantly or “extraordinarily.”
Lukewarm on Distant Work
Creating efficient pointers and implementing AI expertise at scale would require staff with AI experience. However in keeping with the survey, 68 p.c of CTOs mentioned their establishment is struggling to rent new expertise workers, and 40 p.c considerably or strongly agree that their establishment is struggling to retain expertise workers. The overwhelming majority of CTOs attributed recruitment and retention challenges to extra aggressive gives exterior higher training.
Whereas higher training establishments usually don’t have the sources to pay their workers like non-public tech corporations would, distant and versatile work has turn out to be a nonmonetary profit potential workers are more and more drawn to post-pandemic.
Nonetheless, the survey exhibits that about half of establishments don’t have insurance policies that encourage distant/versatile work, regardless of 98 p.c of CTOs who agreed that their establishment has the expertise to make it viable and 86 p.c who mentioned their colleagues count on extra flexibility to work when and the place they wish to now than they did earlier than the pandemic.
That discovering aligns with a 2023 survey from the School and College Skilled Affiliation for Human Assets, which discovered that 44 p.c of nonfaculty higher training workers mentioned that restricted distant work choices was certainly one of their prime causes for trying for one other job.
Whereas student-facing roles require in-person work, the elevated urge for food for distant work for jobs, reminiscent of these in IT, that don’t essentially require a bodily workplace presence is “going to vary the best way higher training appears,” mentioned Muhsinah Morris, an assistant professor of training at Morehouse School and director and principal investigator of Morehouse within the Metaverse, a digital studying setting.
“It’s not as if higher ed is paying a lot,” she mentioned. “With distant work, it can save you gasoline time and money on commuting … On this economic system, all of these components matter.”
Cybersecurity within the Age of AI
What additionally issues, Morris mentioned, is the CTO survey’s discovering that few college tech officers are very assured that their establishment’s practices can forestall cyberattacks that might compromise knowledge or mental property, or result in a ransomware occasion. Sixty-three p.c mentioned they’re reasonably assured.
“It tells us that they completely aren’t able to tackle what’s going to occur when the floodgates of AI open up and folks have entry to extra strong methods to assault institutional networks,” she added.
Morris famous that higher training establishments—particularly high-profile and research-intensive establishments—are notably weak to cyberattacks as a result of not solely do they handle the non-public info of scholars and workers, in addition they handle databases that host proprietary, patentable and trademarked analysis.
And at establishments that aren’t fascinated by AI from a cross-campus, enterprise degree, that vulnerability is even higher as malware and phishing get extra subtle by the day.
“In the event that they don’t have any understanding of how these cyberattacks are occurring within the age of AI,” Morris mentioned, “it makes an establishment weak for a hostile takeover.”
Extra Key CTO Survey Findings
- Relating to their establishment’s precedence areas for digital transformation efforts, many CTOs (81 p.c) cited pupil success. Libraries got here in final in a listing of potential precedence areas (26 p.c). A few third of CTOs (35 p.c) mentioned their establishment has set particular objectives for digital transformation.
- Two in 10 CTOs (20 p.c) mentioned their establishment has partnered with a expertise firm to implement AI. A further three in 10 (32 p.c) mentioned their establishment is contemplating such a partnership. And about one in seven CTOs every mentioned their establishment is presently constructing its personal expertise utilizing open-source AI fashions (15 p.c) or contemplating doing so (additionally 15 p.c).
- School and universities persevering with to lean into on-line instruction by numerous metrics, with public establishments having an obvious edge over non-public nonprofit ones: Some 96 p.c of public establishment CTOs considerably or strongly agreed that their school or college will maintain its potential to supply high-quality on-line programs, in comparison with 37 p.c of personal nonprofit establishment CTOs.
- Most CTOs considerably or strongly agreed that their establishment helps instructing with expertise in technical methods, reminiscent of by offering technical assist for instructing on-line programs (84 p.c). Fewer CTOs agreed, considerably or strongly, that their establishment helps instructing with expertise in different methods, reminiscent of by contemplating it in tenure and promotion choices (39 p.c) or by appropriately accommodating for the time calls for of on-line programs on college workloads (33 p.c).