Student business services teams face growing pressure to support students quickly and accurately, especially during peak billing and enrollment periods. This session will explore how AI automation reduces student frustration by providing 24/7 answers to common questions about payments, refunds, and account holds. Presenters will demonstrate a practical framework for calculating the financial and operational impact of AI adoption, helping you model potential savings and service improvements at your own campus. You’ll leave with actionable strategies and a customizable ROI template for evaluating how AI can enhance student support while optimizing staff resources.

As higher education invests in AI, traditional ROI models often fail to capture value during early adoption. Panelists will introduce Return on Efficiency (RoE), a practical framework for CFOs, CBOs, COOs, and other leaders to measure AI impact through four categories: time savings, productivity gains, quality improvement, and cost avoidance. Learn how to establish baselines, track distributed benefits across departments, and communicate results to boards and legislators. You’ll leave with a phased implementation approach aligned to budget cycles and clear criteria for transitioning mature initiatives to traditional ROI—balancing innovation with fiscal accountability.

Foundation and advancement finance teams are expected to do more: spend faster, report accurately, and demonstrate compliance – all while honoring donor restrictions and working with imperfect data. Panelists will share practical generative AI use cases for improving data readiness, automating processes, enhancing communication, and ensuring compliance. You’ll walk away with a risk-based framework to prioritize use cases and design oversight, aligning foundation workflows to institution AI and data policies and approved tools.

As artificial intelligence reshapes higher education operations, institutional leaders must determine where and how AI can deliver meaningful impact. This session will explore how institutions can approach AI as an organizational transformation rather than a standalone technology investment. Panelists will examine how aligning strategy, workforce design, data readiness, and governance enables institutions to move from experimentation to measurable results. You’ll gain practical insight into assessing AI maturity, prioritizing use cases, and sequencing investments that improve operational efficiency, workforce experience, and student outcomes.

In an era where institutions are being asked to do more than ever to deliver standout student experiences, AI agents are helping institutions engage and support learners at scale while streamlining essential operational workflows. Hear how one institution’s AI agent is already transforming admissions, reducing first-year melt, and driving stronger student outcomes without adding complexity for staff. Learn how to interpret real-time AI agent performance dashboards by recognizing key engagement and impact metrics such as student interactions, conversion support, and operational workload reduction to assess the effectiveness and ROI of AI support.

Cybersecurity teams across higher education face escalating threats while operating with limited staffing and resources. This session will examine how artificial intelligence can help redesign security operations and strengthen cyber defense without increasing headcount. The presenter will share how AI-supported workflows reduce alert fatigue, accelerate incident response, and improve analyst effectiveness while maintaining human oversight. You’ll explore how cybersecurity initiatives can be aligned with institutional risk management and operational resilience and learn practical strategies for piloting AI-enabled security initiatives in a responsible and scalable way.

As AI adoption grows across higher education, institutions are grappling with questions about workforce development, strategy, and value. This session will highlight findings from a recent survey on AI's impact on work in higher education. Panelists will discuss a range of findings from the data, including the need for ups killing and staff development, how institutions are thinking about the return on AI investments, and the opportunities AI may offer to support the campus workforce.