3 Areas Where AI Will Impact Higher Ed Most in 2025
"In 2025, technology will continue to transform higher education, reshaping how institutions prepare learners for lifelong success. AI literacy will become as fundamental as basic digital skills, empowering students to engage critically and ethically with this technology. AI-powered tools will also personalize learning, streamline administrative tasks, and help educators focus on teaching while addressing diverse student needs at scale.
"With growing cyber threats, data privacy and cybersecurity will take priority. Institutions must bolster protections to safeguard sensitive information and maintain trust in a digital-first environment. Meanwhile, advancements in ed tech will emphasize accessibility and adaptability, ensuring education remains inclusive and aligned with workforce needs.
"Public-private partnerships will further bridge academia and industry, creating real-world learning opportunities through internships and project-based work. Together, these trends point to a future where education is more continuous, flexible, and connected to evolving career demands, preparing learners for a lifetime of growth and reinvention.
— Ryan Lufkin, VP, global academic strategy, Instructure
AI in Operations & Decision-Making
"In 2023, there was a lot of AI hype and less substance as vendors and institutions were developing strategies and policies to adapt to this new normal. During the past 12 months, there has been a much firmer grasp of the technology, its use cases, and its limitations.
"Looking ahead, foundational data engineering, data modeling, and data governance will prove more important than ever when it comes to being able to leverage AI in analytics. For AI tools to provide accurate results, the semantic layer must be more complete and robust than ever. Advancing the use of a semantic layer is the key to unlocking the potential of AI in analytics, and truly fulfilling the promise of data democratization to non-technical users across campus."
— Darren Catalano, CEO, HelioCampus
"In 2025, artificial intelligence will continue to capture the attention of educational institution faculty, staff and students. Many organizations are only beginning to comprehend the need for high-performance computing power and the infrastructure required to leverage the many benefits of AI in the educational space. As we venture into a future where AI exists and purchasing departments expand their budgets to accommodate that required technology, I believe education IT teams will likely be expected to assume additional responsibility without increasing headcount. As AI adoption grows and use cases continue to develop, the benefits could be transformative in the education space — but that won't come without challenges for those IT teams."
— Mike Gonzalez, sales manager, Expansion Americas & APAC, Paessler GmbH
"In 2025, the AI bot boom will give way to 'decision intelligence' emerging as higher education's true transformative force. By harmonizing AI, simulation, and optimization, DI will enable more and more institutions to shift from reactive student support to a symphony of proactive and precise strategies that will significantly increase positive student outcomes."
— Joe Dery, VP & dean of data analytics, computer science, and software engineering, Western Governors University School of Technology
"To thrive in today's complex landscape, colleges and universities must make the most of their existing data. But siloed systems have historically hindered data use for predictive analytics and insights. And they don't always serve the fast-paced needs of administrators working to support students in the moment.