The AI impact we're not talking about in higher education

 Much has already been written about the potential implications of artificial intelligence (AI) being used by students in higher education. Much of what has been written is focused on the harrowing dangers of students who use AI to help write admissions essays, complete homework assignments, and fake their way through college. Faculty members vacillate between outright forbidding the use of AI on homework assignments and trying to find clever ways to incorporate AI into assignments (knowing that students are most likely using these tools anyway). Even as I type this post, Grammarly, an AI writing companion, is correcting my spelling mistakes and recommending style and grammar edits. 

These issues will increasingly require faculty, administrators, researchers, and others to grapple with a time-honored question: What is the purpose of an education, anyway? Again, much has been written about this, and a few different camps are emerging across the higher education landscape. Some institutions are bringing focus back to the "Classics" of Western literature, thought, and praxis. (You can unpack the problematic aspects of this approach in your journal.) Others seek to incorporate AI and technological advances more profoundly and rely on micro-credentialing over traditional four-year degrees. Either way, a great wave of transformation is building up that all colleges and universities will increasingly have to prepare for and address. 

The one potential impact of AI integration that isn't getting much airtime or table time is the impact on various administrative departments and positions across college campuses. I believe several potential roles in college administration could be deeply impacted by large-scale AI integration, radically altering the job landscape and the institutional feel of most colleges. Two such roles are academic advising and business services.

Academic advising has long served as an entry point for young professionals or those wishing to enter higher education administration from other backgrounds. These positions are college-specific and serve many students as front-line liaisons between the college requirements and the student's skills and interests. Advisors are often overworked and underpaid and manage large caseloads that can leave them personally unfulfilled. They are essential guides that help students navigate degree requirements and build an experiential learning portfolio that helps students complete college in a timely fashion. I have a gut feeling that an AI chatbot trained in the institution's degree requirements could serve this role quite effectively. In fact, I believe the current generation of screen-first students might actually prefer this simplified transactional approach to advising. This would, of course, make the advisor role obsolete outside of niche circumstances. It might even save colleges a little money, reducing or recouping salaries.

This would close a significant foothold for young or new professionals trying to get into higher education administration. 

AI will also impact many campus enterprise and business services as it improves. Offices where this would have the most significant impact include the Cashiers' Office, Dining, and Campus Stores. Deploying AI chatbots to help students and family members pay tuition and bills would simplify some aspects of that process. I think about the DMV tool my state uses to renew vehicle registration. Their chatbot is quick, efficient, EASY, and "friendly." The only limiting factor to using an AI chatbot to help with tuition payment processes is the intricate web of financial aid packages that mix loans, grants, scholarships, and direct payment. However, I am sure that with time and training, this is something that standard AI models could navigate with a client. 

What does any of this mean? Advisors, make sure your resume is up to date and that you are building skills and connections outside of your current role. Business officers and financial aid advisors, make sure you stay updated on all the changes in your field annually. And, in both instances and across campus - REFRAME the skills you already have so you can pivot to other on or off-campus roles if needed, RETRAIN yourself in different work roles (seek out new skills and training opportunities that make you an essential asset), and RESIST AI deployment as needed (speak up for yourself and others when AI advances are suggested in work meetings).

There are surely more posts to come about this as it develops.