It’s time for institutions to find pathways for doing less with less—enabling leaders and staff to pursue their most important work in healthier, more efficient, and more meaningful ways. AI-Enabled Efficiencies and Growth is issue #9 in the 2026 EDUCAUSE Top 10.
Technology professionals consistently report that their workloads exceed capacity, their teams are understaffed, and that, despite these realities, their institution still demands they maintain the same levels of service and continue to do more with less.Footnote1
For many institutions, there doesn't appear to be much relief on the horizon. Even if budget and staffing levels were to return to those of more prosperous days, colleges and universities would still be challenged to attract and retain talent, especially in regions where demographic, geographic, or economic barriers exist and increasingly frustrate efforts to build a thriving workforce.
It's past time, then, for institutions to find pathways for doing less with less—enabling leaders and staff to pursue their most important work in healthier, more efficient, and more meaningful ways.
AI could be a compelling solution for some institutions, offering the promise of automated administrative processes that reduce staff burden, enable faster planning and decision-making, and increase staff capacity for tasks they typically have little to no time for. The cascading benefits of automation and other analytics capabilities to institutional operations and administration could translate into significant time and cost savings and free staff capacity to explore meaningful programmatic investments and pursue professional development.
These new capabilities, however, aren't without risks and detractors. Some interpret "efficiencies" as code for "reductions in staff" that threaten the long-term job security of certain segments of the higher education workforce. And not all aspects of new AI and other solution adoptions will seem "efficient," as they will still demand significant investments in infrastructure and tooling, as well as technology staff capacity for training, services, and support.
And, as with most applications of new data-driven capabilities, privacy and security concerns remain paramount. Institutions need to be intentional about how they govern and safely implement these critical institutional functions, some of which depend on access to sensitive institutional data.
Campus Spotlight: Staff Microcredentials for AI Skill Development at the University of British Columbia
At the University of British Columbia (UBC), as at most other higher education institutions, recent enrollment shifts are creating financial strain. As a result, its leadership is considering automation solutions such as AI to create operational efficiencies to ease the burden on staff. For Associate Vice President of Information Technology and CIO Jennifer Burns, it's important that her team be involved and empowered in that process to find efficiencies in their own work and evolve in their uses of AI technologies.
"I have over 550 people directly reporting to me in the IT unit," she said. "I feel responsible for helping them adapt and providing opportunities to move them forward in their career. We recently designed a new certificate program, AI Skills Accelerator for IT, Digital and Enterprise Systems Professionals, with UBC's Extended Learning team. It's a year-long microcredential, and we currently have about 230 staff enrolled in the initial foundation course, and they'll go through it together as a cohort. And as part of that program, they're coming up with all these great ideas about how they can automate their work.
"It's important to teach our people how to use AI and understand the opportunities and risks, because they can be the best ones to generate ideas. It's about augmenting their work, not replacing them. And that knowledge is something that they can use to improve their career opportunities. Hopefully they will use that to advance within UBC, but they may choose to leave, and that's fair too, but there is the benefit that they can apply and share their knowledge within UBC while they're here."
Ways to Get Started
Through our panelist interviews and community survey, technology leaders noted some ways institutions might realize opportunities for AI technologies in their work:
- A more thoughtful, collaborative change-management process for adopting AI solutions can help ensure institutions use AI not just to cut corners and complete tasks faster but to address real needs and priorities. Listening to users is key to identifying "deal-breaker" use cases (e.g., ensuring that real human contact with students is not eliminated completely). Exploring EDUCAUSE Prosci change management programs is a great way to start engaging in this process.
- Staff discomfort and frustration with using new AI capabilities can slow down or halt adoption altogether. Look for quick-win opportunities that help staff build confidence and familiarity in using these tools to support their most pressing needs. They can then expand this foundation to other use cases.
Notes
- Mark McCormack, 2025 EDUCAUSE Technology Leadership Workforce in Higher Education, (EDUCAUSE, July 2025) Jump back to footnote 1 in the text.
Karen Bates is Interim Chief Digital and Information Officer at London Business School and UCISA Trustee.
Jennifer Burns is Associate VP Information Technology at The University of British Columbia.
Muhammad Hossain is Director of Instructional Technology at Claflin University.
John McGuthry is Vice President and Chief Information Officer at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona.
Jesus Ramirez is Director of Student Products at University of California, Los Angeles.
Brandon Rich is Director of AI Enablement at University of Notre Dame.
© 2025 EDUCAUSE and the 2025–2026 EDUCAUSE Top 10 Panel. The text of this work is licensed under a Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 4.0 International License.