Artificial intelligence is no longer an emerging topic in higher education — it’s a core operational and pedagogical concern for campuses across the country. A new Inside Higher Ed analysis outlines five key ways AI will continue to reshape colleges and universities in 2026, offering a useful lens for IT leaders, academic technologists, and digital strategy teams.
The Future of AI Depends on the Tech Market and Public Perception
AI’s trajectory in higher education isn’t defined only by what happens within campuses — it hinges on broader societal attitudes and the health of the AI sector itself. If the AI market softens or faces high-profile setbacks, institutional momentum around new tools and investments could slow. Conversely, continued innovation and adoption could solidify AI as a central pillar of academic infrastructure.
This also ties directly to how potential students and employers perceive the value of traditional degrees versus AI-driven learning pathways — a conversation that will intensify throughout 2026.
Scaling AI Initiatives Means Measuring Impact
Institutions have moved past siloed pilots of AI tools. Next, they’re looking to scale strategic deployments — from campuswide AI literacy initiatives to enterprise-level services — while measuring outcomes. Leaders are increasingly asking:
How do we evaluate the ROI of AI tools?
What metrics matter most — learning gains, retention, operational efficiencies?
This shift from experimentation to strategic planning and evaluation marks a maturation of AI use in higher education.
A Period of AI Disillusionment May Be Ahead
Not all momentum will be linear. Some educators and students are already expressing fatigue or skepticism about AI’s place in the classroom. Ongoing use exposes limitations — whether ethical, pedagogical, or technological — and stimulates reflection about why we use these tools and what we hope they’ll achieve.
Rather than rejecting AI entirely, this phase could help campuses deepen critical engagement with both technology and core academic values.
Building Stronger Connections Between Tech and Campus Communities
AI adoption isn’t just about tools — it’s about people. Effective use in 2026 will depend on:
IT and ed-tech leaders becoming communicators and trainers
Faculty and staff empowered to integrate AI responsibly
Students equipped with the skills to use and critique AI
This involves strengthening governance, trust, and shared decision-making across institutional units — not just installing new software.
Reducing Fragmentation to Boost Efficiency
One of the most tangible promises of AI lies in connecting systems that historically don’t “talk” to one another: advising, enrollment, financial aid, billing, LMS data and more. AI-driven orchestration and automation could:
Eliminate redundant processes
Provide unified insights for administrators and advisors
Improve student experiences with smoother workflows
Rather than layering new platforms on top of old ones, institutions are looking to intelligently weave existing systems together.
What This Means for IT Leaders
For technology professionals in higher education, these predictions reinforce a few clear priorities for 2026:
AI governance and measurement are as important as tool selection.
Human-centered support and training will determine whether AI helps or hinders outcomes.
Operational integration of AI must be paired with transparency, ethics, and alignment to institutional missions.
In other words: AI isn’t just a technical challenge — it’s a strategic transformation. And campuses that treat it as such will be better positioned to deliver value for students, faculty, and the institution as a whole.
There’s a myth that school buildings go quiet during summer. Walk the halls in July, and you’ll hear the click of keyboards, the hum of laptops updating en masse, and the buzz of tech teams scrambling to patch systems, reset devices, and prepare for the digital demands of another school year.
For school district IT leaders, summer is less a break and more a deadline. It’s the one narrow window to assess, upgrade, secure, and strategize before the onslaught of helpdesk tickets, classroom rollouts, and surprise crises hit like a storm on the first day of school.
As we look toward the 2025–2026 academic year, here’s what’s top of mind for these unsung heroes—and why the work they do now may define how smoothly (or chaotically) the year ahead unfolds.
The Cybersecurity Time Bomb
In recent years, K–12 schools have become ransomware ground zero. Attackers aren’t guessing anymore—they know schools often run aging infrastructure, have limited security staff, and store goldmines of sensitive student data. And they’re exploiting that knowledge.
Overworked IT directors are spending their summers asking hard questions: Have we patched every exposed system? Can we trust our third-party vendors? What happens if our SIS goes down the first week of school?
Some districts are making real progress—adopting Zero Trust models, running phishing simulations, building incident response plans—but for many, it still feels like putting duct tape on a submarine. Funding is thin, awareness is spotty, and the stakes have never been higher.
The Chromebook Cliff
Remember the great rush to 1:1 device programs during the pandemic? Well, those devices—millions of them—are aging out. Batteries are failing. Screens are cracked. Charging carts are breaking down.
Summer is when IT departments try to get ahead of it all. They’re running diagnostics, triaging broken units, and scrambling to figure out how to replace entire fleets when budgets are stretched thin.
For many, it’s a sobering realization: the quick fixes of 2020 are now long-term operational burdens. And unless they make smart decisions now—standardizing device types, implementing MDM tools, tracking asset lifecycle—they’ll be trapped in a repair-and-replace cycle for years to come.
The EdTech Hangover
If you ever thought your school was using too many apps, you’re probably right. On average, districts use more than 1,400 digital tools each year. Many of them do the same things. Few of them talk to each other.
Educators are overwhelmed. Students are confused. And IT departments? They’re spending hours troubleshooting login issues and fielding support calls for tools no one really needed in the first place.
This summer, more districts are taking stock. They’re auditing usage, sunsetting underperforming tools, and trying to simplify the learning experience. It’s less about cutting costs (though that helps) and more about cutting the noise. Because when every tool claims to be “the future of learning,” it’s hard to know what’s actually helping.
Wi-Fi Woes and Connectivity Gaps
For most schools, Wi-Fi has become as critical as plumbing. And yet, network infrastructure often goes untouched for years, only getting attention when something breaks.
Summer gives IT teams the chance to breathe and look at the bigger picture: Are access points where they need to be? Can the network handle a hallway full of AI-enabled learning apps? What about those students at home who still can’t get online?
Upgrades to Wi-Fi 6, bandwidth increases, and expanded mesh networks are top of the to-do list. So is partnering with local ISPs to keep students connected off campus. Because in 2025, learning doesn’t stop at the school gate—and neither should connectivity.
Student Data, Privacy, and the Compliance Tightrope
With each new app, platform, or analytics dashboard comes a fresh load of student data. Grades, attendance, behavior, even biometrics in some cases. And districts are under more pressure than ever to safeguard it all.
IT leaders are spending these weeks re-reading vendor contracts, updating privacy policies, and working with legal teams to stay compliant with laws like FERPA and COPPA. They’re building guardrails—who can access what data, for how long, and under what conditions.
It’s tedious work. But with parents increasingly tuned in to digital privacy—and regulators watching closely—it’s no longer optional. If schools want trust, they have to earn it, and transparency about data practices is where that starts.
The AI Question No One Has Answered Yet
Every superintendent is asking about AI. Should we use it in classrooms? Can it reduce administrative burden? How do we prevent cheating? What about bias? What about the data?
Some districts are experimenting—with mixed results. Others are standing back, watching carefully. What’s clear is that IT leaders need to be part of these conversations, not pulled in after the fact to clean up the mess.
This summer, a few are drafting AI use policies, conducting risk assessments, and exploring partnerships with ethical AI vendors. It’s early days, but one thing’s certain: AI is coming to education whether we’re ready or not.
The Human Challenge: Burnout and Brain Drain
Technology isn’t the only thing under strain. The people managing it are, too.
Districts are struggling to recruit and retain qualified IT staff. The work is hard, the pay often lags behind the private sector, and the burnout is real. One person managing thousands of devices, users, and tickets? It’s not sustainable.
Forward-thinking districts are investing in automation, cross-training, and shared service models across regions. They’re advocating for better staffing ratios. Because even the best systems crumble without the people to maintain them.
A Narrow Window for Real Change
The clock is ticking. In a few short weeks, teachers will return. Students will log in. And any cracks in the system will widen under pressure.
Summer isn’t just a time to fix what’s broken—it’s a chance to reset. To rethink what’s necessary, what’s working, and what no longer fits. For school district IT leaders, it’s not just about avoiding disaster. It’s about building infrastructure that supports every learner, teacher, and admin—not just for this year, but for years to come.
Because education is changing. And the technology behind it has to keep up.
By Mitrankur (Mit) Majumdar, vice president and regional head—services, Americas, Infosys.
Mitrankur (Mit) Majumdar
Education has been caught between the tectonic plates of digital technologies and the once-in-a-century pandemic. The industry has been forced to transition to a virtual engagement model that it was unprepared for. But even before the pandemic, the advent of Massive Open Online Courses was driving growth in higher education and reskilling with enrolment in traditional postsecondary institutions declining.
Massive generational changes in technological and workplace trends are changing the definition of education itself transforming it into a multi-dimensional and pervasive opportunity, open to people of all ages and socioeconomic strata. The definition of the ‘student’ is also changing, who now expects anytime, anywhere, and lifelong learning.
Leave legacy behind
In this new paradigm, outmoded approaches to teaching and learning just don’t support the new demands and changed expectations. Even educational institutions that use technology, utilize legacy systems that work in a monolithic fashion and don’t support the new age learner’s journey. They are difficult to integrate with modern Software-as-a-Service applications required for the learning solutions of today and expensive to operate.
A vast majority of students are digital natives, which means they expect hyper-personal, imaginative, and on-demand learning experiences that are frictionless. While higher education institutions scrambled to ensure resilience with Zoom user accounts during the pandemic, that comes nowhere close to the user experience that students have come to expect. They are communication platforms and not Education communication platforms.
Another key element is the existence of complex relational databases that make it difficult to obtain the desired data that can be used for competitive advantage. Students generate data at every touchpoint and technology allows the education institution to map this data and create a genome of each student. This provides a 360-degree, unified view of the student by employing data and analytics helping in personalized inputs to drive necessary interventions for student success.
Traditionally college information systems are siloed because of organic growth and complexity over a long period of time. This condition causes a fragmentation of information related to student and faculty data which can lead to inefficiencies in supporting students.
With educational programs becoming more accessible to a larger population, an online format is one way to reach more students, more often.
With the growth of online systems in higher education, like what we offer at Calbright College, the need to access data real time for faculty and students alike is paramount.
I believe in 2020 we will see the evaluation of platforms that have crossover appeal from other industries that are consumer and business focused in order to bring a modern, high-tech experience to Higher Education.
Rich student records that are accessible by multiple departments connected through cloud systems would allow any data attached to the student to be used for college purposes without passing the student to other departments.
This paradigm shift will ultimately accelerate student acquisition, support, and ultimate completion of their educational goals and beyond.
Artificial intelligence is no longer an emerging topic in higher education — it’s a core operational and pedagogical concern for campuses across the country. A new Inside Higher Ed analysis outlines five key ways AI will continue to reshape colleges and universities in 2026, offering a useful lens for IT leaders, academic technologists, and digital strategy teams.
