Article
Universities keep telling me they want to be "AI-first".
Originally posted on LinkedIn on November 26, 2025.
Universities keep telling me they want to be “AI-first”. Then you look at the workload model, the promotion criteria and the risk register… and AI is nowhere to be seen. 🙃 We are awash with AI strategies, pilots and “hyper-personalised learning” case studies. The article I read today (link below) is right that we need AI competence across roles, not just a handful of enthusiasts with a ChatGPT tab permanently open. But competence does not appear because a PDF strategy says it should. It appears when you change what people are paid, supported and expected to do. If AI experimentation lives in evenings, weekends and “optional” CPD sessions, it is not a strategy, it is unpaid overtime. Talk of micro-credentials and sandbox “play” sounds admirable, but it rings hollow if staff have to squeeze it between marking, recruitment and yet another emergency curriculum review. The institutions making real progress are quietly hard-wiring AI into workload plans, fellowships, role descriptions and governance routes. Less glamorous than “AI-first”, but far closer to actual transformation. 🛠️ So here is the awkward question for leaders: if someone only saw your workload allocations and governance papers, would they conclude you were serious about AI? Or would they assume it is still an optional side-project for the keen and the sleepless? I would be genuinely interested in examples where AI work is explicitly built into roles, time and governance rather than bolted on at the margins. 👀 #HigherEducation #AIinEducation #EdTech #DigitalStrategy #AcademicWorkload #Leadership #UniversityGovernance Link: https://lnkd.in/dbHfU2Mn