AI In Academia: Much Potential, Much Resistance

Colleges and universities have started using virtual assistants, chatbots, and other intelligent software tools to augment or replace student interactions with advisers or counselors and to provide some institutional services. Yet many faculty members still resist supporting AI, especially when it comes to delivering course content. I enlisted my colleague Nicole Engelbert, Oracle vice president of higher educational development, to help me assess and position the role of AI in academia. What follows are excerpts from our recent discussion. Rajecki: When I started in higher ed, the concern was that online learning would replace classrooms.