Presentation Summary
As universities continue to explore AI adoption, most remain focused on using AI to enhance discrete tasks, missing the opportunity for deeper transformation. This session invites university CIOs and leaders to consider a more radical proposition: reimagining the entire university operating model for a world fundamentally reshaped by artificial intelligence. The discussion will challenge traditional governance, decision-making, and operational frameworks, pushing beyond incremental AI enhancements to envision a future where AI is fully embedded in the university’s core structure.
While AI is already being applied to specific tasks, this session will provoke a rethinking of how universities function at a fundamental level. By exploring the potential for AI-driven decision-making, governance, and operations, this session will encourage forward-thinking leaders to move beyond simply automating processes and begin imagining AI as a structural foundation for universities by 2030. It will be provocative, visionary, and ideal for leaders ready to innovate beyond current AI trends.
Meet the Speaker
Alison Cairns
Education Sector Leader for Australia and New Zealand, EY
Alison Cairns is a Partner at EY in the Technology Transformation practice and also serves as the Oceania Education Lead, where Digital, Data and AI are reframing learning to transform the future of education.
Alison is the co-author of “The peak of higher education – a new world for the University of the future” as well as “A class of their own – how data makes a student more than a number”.
Digital, Data, and AI play a foundational role in the Future of Education, accelerating the move to hybrid learning, the rise of the digital academic, operational efficiency, workforce reimagined, future of work skills, accessibility and equity in education.
