The Exact Moment AI Projects Die (And Why It’s Not Technical)
It’s not during the build. It’s not during the pilot. It’s not even during the demo, which usually goes well. It’s in the week after the demo. When the email goes out asking for a timeline on next steps. And the organization discovers it has no good answer. The Pattern Most AI pilots succeed on […]
Higher Education’s Credibility Runs Through Outcomes
At the ASU+GSV Summit, a collaboration between Global Silicon Valley (GSV) Ventures and Arizona State University (ASU), there was no shortage of ideas. The Gap between Institutional Reality and Student Expectations Higher education needs spaces where people can test assumptions, share new approaches, and challenge old models. What stayed with me, though, was not just […]
What Are Your Three Wishes?
Agentic AI is getting smarter. The question is whether higher education knows what to ask of it. Every new wave of technology seems to arrive with the same basic promise: better tools, better information, better decisions. But if the last couple of decades have taught us anything, it is that information usually is not the […]
Where Oracle Is Taking Higher Education: Key Themes from Knoxville
Reflections from the Oracle Higher Education Summit in Knoxville This week I attended the Oracle Higher Education Summit at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. The event brought together institutional leaders and technologists to explore where the market is heading, with a strong focus on AI, platforms, and the future of enterprise systems in higher education. […]
AiPEX Center Launch: Higher Education Just Leapfrogged Into 2026
Drivestream just opened a new hands-on center designed to showcase what AI can actually look like in practice. Last week, Hampton Shive and I had the opportunity to spend time at the launch of Drivestream’s AiPEX Center in Leesburg, Virginia. Why This Felt Different I’ve been to a lot of conferences, seen countless demos, and […]
Academic Operations Is Becoming the Next Battleground in Higher Education Technology
For years, the center of gravity in higher education technology strategy has been relatively clear. Institutions invested heavily in student information systems, learning management systems, and CRM platforms to modernize the student lifecycle. Vendors built ecosystems around these core platforms. Technology roadmaps often revolved around replacing or upgrading one of these major systems. And in […]
P3•EDU MAP Summit Recap: The Expanding Role of Mergers, Affiliations, and Partnerships
The P3•EDU MAP Summit, P3•EDU’s first standalone event focused on mergers, affiliations, and partnerships, captured a higher education market that is rethinking how institutions build scale, resilience, and capacity. Held March 16 and 17 in Arlington, Virginia, the summit brought together college and university leaders alongside thought leaders from government, associations, foundations, and corporations to […]
The Hidden Thinking Tax of AI: How to Stay Cognitively Sharp
AI tools are changing how we work. Left unchecked, they’ll change how we think too. You’re staring at a blank document. A strategy memo is due by the end of the day. Instead of wrestling with the problem, sketching out arguments, weighing the trade-offs, you open your AI assistant and type: “Write a strategic memo […]
What NERCOMP 2026 Revealed About Higher Education’s AI Priorities
At NERCOMP 2026 in Providence, the conference theme, “Connect Locally, Think Globally” underscored the event’s role as a forum for higher education institution leaders to share experiences and best practices on how they are navigating universal pressures. NERCOMP (Northeast Regional Computing Program) is a nonprofit consortium serving higher education library and IT professionals in the […]
The Vicious Fractal of Complacency: When Leadership Trades Agency for Comfort
Complacency is one of those words we think we understand immediately—usually as a character flaw. It conjures images of laziness, low standards, or people who simply don’t care. But in the real world, complacency is rarely that simple. More often, it’s what happens when friction becomes familiar. When complexity becomes “normal.” When the path of […]
