5 Ways Higher Education Can Use AI to Create a Competitive Advantage—and 4 Concerns

by Laurie Capozza, Dynamic Campus Vice President, Shared & Professional Services

Committees, working groups, and task forces have been assembled in institutions across the country, striving to harness AI’s potential to optimize the process of teaching and learning, all while navigating its downsides, such as AI-enabled malware and plagiarism.

AI can be generalized into two categories that impact higher education. Predictive AI, also known as machine learning, finds patterns in existing data and uses them to project future results or outcomes.

Generative AI tools became a household concept in late 2022 with the launch of ChatGPT, followed by other large language model (LLM) chatbots such as Microsoft Copilot, Google’s Bard, and xAI’s Grok that can complete tasks or conduct humanlike conversations.

Although LLMs are dominating recent headlines, corporations have leveraged machine learning for years for tasks from inventory management and facial recognition to fraud detection and research and development (R&D).

Many small private educational institutions, however, do not have the time, talent, or treasure to spend experimenting with different AI products—they simply want to know where they can best invest their dollars for the biggest benefit.

Smart meters and building sensors, coupled with weather forecasts, can help minimize and reduce energy consumption while maintaining comfort—and even increase the efficiency of landscaping and irrigation schedules.

Sensors installed in campus infrastructure such as HVAC, elevators, and electrical systems can predict failures before they occur, enabling proactive maintenance that reduces downtime and future repairs.

Numerous time-consuming processes still exist in higher education: scheduling, resource allocation, document processing, and transcript evaluation, to name just a few.

AI can streamline those processes and reduce manual effort and errors. In addition, automating frequent tasks with a chatbot or ticketing system can allow staff to focus on higher-value tasks that require human interaction. The benefits of this administrative automation are perhaps most evident among smaller, private institutions where the need for efficiency and productivity are greatest.

AI-powered cybersecurity solutions serve as a 24/7 force multiplier: monitoring and learning what is “normal” vs. a likely malicious operator, automatically alerting your
teams, and taking action to contain threats or initiate remediation efforts even when staff are not present.

By incorporating AI, donor analytics platforms can identify and prioritize potential donors with relevant, personalized, and timely communications. Because of the way they process data at scale, AI tools can generate insights that would be difficult or impossible to derive by hand.

Accuracy will vary based on queries, data sets, and the algorithms used, which are invisible to the user.

Some AI platforms may incorporate user inputs into their training set, which has the potential to compromise sensitive organization data or even create a cybersecurity threat. For more on this cautionary note, read “Microsoft Copilot and Your Data” in our Resource Library.

AI is advancing rapidly, while regulations and intellectual property protections are trying to catch up.

Rigorous policies are needed to address how students and faculty members use AI—including the deployment of AI-powered tools to detect plagiarism or academic dishonesty.

Whether you’re an AI advocate or detractor, it’s important to educate yourself about the use cases for higher education—both authorized and unauthorized—and consider the other perspective as well.

As with many technologies, there’s no putting the AI genie back in the bottle. But by following the guidelines and considerations above, you will be doing your best to harness the benefits of AI while avoiding many of the intentional and unintentional byproducts that can result from irresponsible AI usage today.

AI adoption is accelerating whether institutions are ready or not. The question is no longer if AI will shape higher education, but who is guiding it. For more about AI leadership, read about our Chief AI Officer as a Service solution that provides institutions with experienced, higher-education-specific AI leadership without the cost, complexity, or risk of a full-time executive hire.

Dynamic Campus has served as a strategic partner for higher education institutions since 2002, enabling and accelerating success by helping transform technology processes and platforms.

If your institution wants to leverage AI safely and consistently but you’re having difficulty developing the roadmap, policies and procedures needed to get there, simply click the button below and we’ll get back to you and arrange a no-cost consultation to learn how we can partner with you to maximize the benefits of AI for your institution.

¹ Microsoft 2025 AI in Education Report (PDF)
² Cengage Group — AI’s Impact on Education in 2025