Leveraging AI in Higher Education

A System-of-Systems Model Helps All Stakeholders Do More with Less

Despite declining enrollments and constrained funding, public higher education institutions face immense pressure to modernize. Simultaneously, the reshoring of American manufacturing demands a more agile workforce.

Luckily, new generations of artificial intelligence and generative AI are here to help. I have seen the value of these advanced technologies while leading business process reengineering (BPR) in the private sector. Now, as a Business Partner with Tompkins Ventures, I believe that AI can help higher education rethink – not just digitize – operations.

They are the perfect tools to help administrators and faculty establish a “system-of-systems” model. This model helps all stakeholders “do more with less.”

Higher education can use this model to optimize internal university operations. But beyond that, this system of systems will allow universities, community colleges, charter schools and trade institutions to collaborate statewide. All institutions can prepare students faster and more affordably. As a bonus, the graduates will align better with evolving workforce needs.

The Current Crisis: Doing More with Less

University systems are facing:

• Shrinking student pipelines and tuition shortfalls
• Increased operational costs and deferred maintenance
• Legislative scrutiny and pressure to justify resource allocations
• Declining faculty morale and anxiety about layoffs

Stakeholders – state legislators, boards of regents, philanthropic donors – increasingly ask: “Have you optimized your operations?”

Recent developments underscore this urgency. Columbia College Chicago announced it would eliminate 11 degree programs and lay off up to 25 full-time faculty. The college was facing years of enrollment declines and a projected $38 million deficit. The University of Alaska faced a 41% cut in state funding in 2019. That university eliminated 40 programs and hundreds of jobs.

More recently, the University of Wisconsin System closed multiple branch campuses, including the planned shutdown of UW-Oshkosh’s Fox Cities campus. News stories repeatedly announce layoffs, budget cuts and fears for the future.

These cases reflect a national pattern, one that demands a proactive, AI-driven approach to avoid reactive cuts and closures.

A System-of-Systems Approach to Higher Education

This is where state systems and boards of higher education must take the lead. A coordinated “system-of-systems” model, supported by consulting expertise and AI transformation strategies, can:

• Allow students to complete degrees across institutions, including charter schools and technical colleges.
• Enable cross-registration, internship matching and credit portability across the state – even across the country.
• Optimize graduation rates while lowering student debt.
• Support industry-aligned training like the cross-sector, in-state models described in my book Reshore.

AI-enabled systems can make this a reality by linking campuses, agencies and employers into one agile ecosystem.

State systems can enact numerous policies to enable this AI transformation. Authorities can create statewide AI task forces or councils across education tiers. Allocate seed grants for shared AI pilots between universities and community colleges. Fund AI-based transcript and skills equivalency translation systems.

Beyond but adjacent to the ivory towers, public-private partnerships offer even more possibilities. Think of cross-sector pilot programs with manufacturers, unions or venture capital firms.

And policy makers can require AI systems to track student success by income, race and geography to track and ensure equity.

The Strategic Role of AI in Higher Education

These types of policies build on the thought leadership of Dr. Vistasp Karbhari, former president of the University of Texas at Arlington.

Dr. Karbhari has written extensively on AI’s role in increasing access, equity and academic integrity. In “Could AI Help Overcome the Scarcity Mindset and Transform the Higher Education Landscape?“, he argues that generative AI can be a powerful tool to democratize education. But, Dr. Karbhari notes, higher education often limits the technology to classroom enhancements or academic policy.

As demonstrated above, the opportunity is far larger. AI must now be used not only for instruction but also to transform institutions operationally – from admissions to advising to internship coordination.

Examples include:

• AI-enhanced academic planning across the state system: Artificial intelligence can identify duplicative courses across campuses, predict high-demand subjects and coordinate system-wide online course offerings. This system could allocate faculty better and open opportunities for inter-campus collaboration.
• AI-powered advising assistants: Institutions can implement AI-based chatbots and automated phone systems to address common student queries. Artificial intelligence can handle financial aid deadlines, degree requirements and scheduling issues, letting advisors focus on individual guidance.
• Smart content distribution: Generative AI can push syllabi, assignments and notifications directly to student calendars and devices. This reduces confusion and increases student preparedness.
• Optimized promotion and tenure workflows: AI can standardize CV formats and auto-generate draft narratives aligned with institutional goals. Streamlining faculty review processes ensures equity and transparency.
• Grant targeting and faculty matchmaking: AI can automate matching faculty research with current funding opportunities and suggest cross-campus collaborations. This significantly reduces time spent on developing proposals.
• Workflow re-engineering for administration: AI can simulate and improve administrative workflows in procurement, HR, IT and facilities. Identifying redundancies saves costs without affecting quality.

Artificial Intelligence with Real-World Results

Forward-thinking colleges and universities have already reaped the rewards from using artificial intelligence and generative AI.

Georgia State University’s AI-powered chatbot “Pounce” proactively answered over 200,000 questions in its first semester. This system helped reduce summer melt and increased retention. Graduation rates went up by 22%.

Under President Paul LeBlanc, Southern New Hampshire University pioneered online, competency-based education. The university’s approach is now increasingly AI-enhanced to personalize student pacing and content.

San Diego State University is using AI tools like Gemini and NotebookLM to support teaching and student engagement. And La Trobe University in Australia is embedding AI across all aspects of its institution, from administration to pedagogy.

In some cases, natural language processing has helped take the workload off advising support staff, reducing basic inquiries by 30-40%. Machine learning for course optimization has increased course fill rates by 10-15%. And document automation and large language model summaries have saved faculty weeks during review cycles.

Other savings are theoretical but possible. AI models have shown that workflow AI and process mining could save some higher education institutions up to $1.5 million in administrative tasks.

Beyond Higher Education

In fact, administrators and instructors at all levels can leverage AI and generative AI across educational tiers. A system-of-systems-model can benefit organizations from kindergarten on.

Charter and K-12 schools can use AI for early alerts for absenteeism and AI career assessments. This not only enables early intervention for at-risk behaviors but also uncovers emerging talent pipelines.

Community colleges can use AI for automated advising, skill-gap analysis and internship matching. This allows for faster credentialing and solid workforce alignment.

Technical and trade schools can use AI tutors for competency-based progression. This helps these institutions graduate industry-ready employees with minimal debt.

State agencies can apply artificial intelligence to cross-institutional student data systems and funding dashboards. This helps them track equity and allocate resources at a system level.

Insights from Tompkins Ventures: A Blueprint for Transformation

In the private sector, Tompkins Ventures is helping companies use artificial intelligence and generative AI to reinvent structure and operations. Tompkins Ventures stresses that AI adoption is not just about tools, it’s about rethinking how work gets done.

As a Tompkins Ventures Business Partner, I’ve helped lead discussions on how universities can draw from these principles. Digital enablement can help universities go beyond digitizing forms to reinventing themselves.

In fact, higher educational institutions can take a page from what Tompkins Ventures recommends for private companies – using AI to restructure themselves entirely for systemic excellence.

Just as AI improves supply chain visibility, it can forecast enrollment trends, identify bottlenecks and optimize scheduling.

Transformations, of course, will require structured change management. Tompkins Ventures emphasizes the importance of cross-functional alignment and structured rollouts – essential practices for universities navigating cultural resistance.

In fact, the right workforce planning and talent development can proactively reskill administrative teams. Prepared for new, AI-augmented roles, higher education workforces will welcome change instead of fearing displacement.

A System-of-Systems Compact for the Future

With the reshoring effort gaining momentum across the U.S., the demand for a skilled, technically trained manufacturing workforce is surging. This workforce won’t be produced fast enough if we limit our approach to increasing efficiencies within single institutions.

We will need to do more with less – and faster. That means integrating universities, community colleges, charter schools and trade schools into a true system-of-systems model. A new educational compact is required – one that is agile, AI-powered and aligned with regional workforce development.

As I outline in my book Reshore, innovation in education and industry must go hand in hand to meet these national goals.

The universities that thrive in this decade will be those that treat AI not as an experiment, but as a foundation for institutional success. A system of systems can help preserve faculty positions, increase student satisfaction and achieve fiscal sustainability.

If your university, state system or board is seeking to implement these ideas – or begin a full AI transformation roadmap – connect with me through Tompkins Ventures.

Let’s re-engineer higher education, together.

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• Missing the Boat on AI in Education
• For Your Students’ Future, Use AI in the Classroom
• AI in Business Will Enable the Autonomous Organization