The 2026 Educause Conference, located in Denver, Colorado, in late September, provided an opportunity to learn how colleagues across higher education are navigating rapid technological shifts. The newly released 2027 Top Ten Issues, themed around “The Age of Perpetual Change,” highlighted that, for the first time, artificial intelligence claimed the number one spot. The remaining top five issues include future-proofing students for an ever-changing world, balancing cybersecurity with trust, designing AI structures for responsible innovation, and designing human-centric technology experiences. 

Over the conference’s two and a half days, it was hard to avoid sessions about or related to AI. I tried but failed. From Boodlebox integration into English courses at Delaware County Community College to accessibility remediation with ChatGPT at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) to Emerson College’s presentation about managing Vibe-coded applications, AI was everywhere. I want to be clear: not all the sessions were rah-rah, AI-is-great themed. The limitations and struggles were highlighted, the administrative struggles were teeth-gnashed, and chatbot garbage-in, garbage-out was discussed. 

My overall impression is that we (higher education) are all in the same big boat. Just when we think we have it figured out, AI takes another incredible leap, and it appears as if we are falling behind again. Every school is trying to do what is best for its students, staff, and faculty. What I can say, with confidence, is that NMC is ahead of the curve. We may be walking a squiggly line of AI navigation, but at least we acknowledge the line exists.