Through all my years working with students, I have always strived to instill the core value of critical thought. I have urged students to avoid binary thinking. Being able to think with complexity and nuance is to be a thoughtful and effective student. In the past year, the topic of AI has come up in nearly every classroom I have stepped in and, I am happy to report, these students have generally approached the topic with the complexity and nuance I hope they will approach every issue with. Now that AI is here and beginning to affect higher education, we cannot have a binary response to it. Instead of instinctually deciding whether it will destroy education as we know it or completely fix every problem in our field overnight, we must focus on the process of learning. That is the very tenant that higher education was built on, and to not engage AI with curiosity would be a disservice to our field.

Hopes & Reservations

Generally, I am excited about where AI can take us. We are already seeing the benefits it can have in the classroom and for administrations. For students, AI helps break down language barriers, allows for services to be available 24/7, and provides tools that level the playing field for students of all abilities. Beyond these impacts on students, we are even beginning to see business programs pioneer majors in AI. We have also started to see the immense potential Artificial Intelligence could have to positively affect administrative roles in universities as well. Some of the institutions beginning to use these new tools have revealed the ways AI can assist in research and reduce routine and repetitive tasks like sifting through big data. It can also respond to student support channels in a more effective and efficient manner and can streamline enrollment and admissions management. We are just scratching the surface of the potential AI can have for our field.

Though, like many, I also have my reservations about what AI could mean for our field. While there are many benefits that we are just now beginning to see, we cannot simply accept these conveniences into our lives without considering the risks. There is already a dire need for safeguards as we continue to implement AI into our university systems. We can see issues of pre-existing bias come into play – the AI is, after all, just pulling from pre-existing data. How will we look to combat these biases? We have begun to see how ‘hallucinations’ are allowing AI to push false information that, if unchecked, could pose serious problems. Will we still be capable of deciding what is true for ourselves? The more we engage with AI, the more we need to focus on what we as humans bring to the table. We must refocus on the core mission and ethics that have guided higher education for centuries.

The Great Unknown

AI is providing a unique opportunity for us to reflect on those very ethics. It is forcing us to consider some larger questions about what it means to be human. It is forcing us to think about how we think. I have been reflecting on what is inherently human and the things we will need to actively preserve as AI comes into our lives. People will always be essential because of our ability to think critically, engage with issues in context, and work in a complex world in a way only humans can. But AI is a deeply useful tool that can improve the lives of students, educators, and administrators alike. The onset of AI must force us into action. We must continue to ponder these impossible questions and build guardrails to protect us from the obstacles we are already seeing and the hazards we have yet to come across. In higher education, we must actively work to preserve our core tenants of Knowledge, Community, & Social Impact. These foundational pursuits cannot be accounted for by AI and will always remain as the ultimate purpose of higher education.

I hope we can use this new tool to assist higher education. It has the potential to improve administration, teaching, and learning in our universities, but we cannot be lackadaisical in our acceptance. We must resist the urge to staunchly choose one side or the other and instead approach this major change with diligence and focus. If we are able to do that, we will be able to harness it with our ethics as the guiding force. This moment is the beginning of a long process of learning and growing alongside Artificial Intelligence. We will have to find a way forward to work effectively and compassionately with it in all of our lives.

This article was written in contribution to IAU Horizons Volume 29, No.1. The ‘In Focus’ section of this edition was dedicated to Universities and the Interplay of Human Intelligence and Generative AI. This edition was published in June 2025. Read the full edition and more IAU Horizons here.