AI adoption in higher education is moving faster than institutional change models were built to handle. Students are already using AI at high rates, while many institutions are still trying to decide where AI belongs, who should lead it, and how much change is required.

In this episode of the Changing Higher Ed® podcast, Dr. Drumm McNaughton speaks with Nikki Barua, serial entrepreneur and founder of FlipWork, about why higher education's traditional change management playbook will not work in the AI age.

Drawing on her work with Fortune 500 companies and AI implementation, Barua explains why AI should be treated as institutional infrastructure, not an IT project. She discusses the growing gap between technology adoption and human readiness, why many AI pilots fail, and how institutions can move from slow, episodic transformation to shorter, people-centered reinvention cycles.

This conversation is especially relevant for presidents, boards, provosts, CIOs, and senior leadership teams trying to prepare students, faculty, staff, and institutional systems for an AI-driven future.

• Why incremental change management cannot keep pace with AI
• How AI differs from previous technology disruptions like the internet and mobile
• Why AI should be treated as infrastructure across the institution
• What the AI readiness gap means for higher education leaders
• Why many AI pilots fail when organizations focus on tools instead of people
• How AI may reshape entry-level jobs and the graduate talent pipeline
• Why skills-based hiring is changing what students need from higher education
• How faculty roles may shift from content delivery to mentorship, ethics, and judgment
• Why liberal arts and human skills may become more valuable in the AI age
• How human-in-the-loop design can improve AI use in enrollment, advising, and student support
• Why AI literacy must become a core institutional capability

• AI adoption among students far outpacing institutional readiness
• Corporate AI pilots failing because organizations did not prepare people to use the tools effectively
• Entry-level jobs shrinking or changing as AI takes over early-career tasks
• Employers moving toward skills-based hiring and project-specific teams
• AI tutors, teaching assistants, adaptive learning tools, and student support applications
• Enrollment chatbots that create frustration when they replace rather than support human interaction
• Human-in-the-loop workflows that know when to hand a student or prospect to a person
• Ethics in AI as a foundation for preparing graduates to use powerful tools responsibly

1. AI is an opportunity for reinvention, not an IT project. Institutions should treat AI as a strategic leadership issue that affects competitive position, culture, academic delivery, student support, and institutional agility.
2. Students are already ahead of many institutions. Without governance, ethical guidelines, and structured leadership, AI use can become unmanaged shadow AI across the institution.
3. The cost of waiting grows exponentially. AI is advancing week by week, and institutions that delay action will face a widening readiness gap that becomes harder and more expensive to close.

This episode offers a direct look at why higher education cannot rely on its traditional pace of change in the AI age, and why institutional leaders must rethink what they offer that AI cannot replicate.

Read the transcript: https://changinghighered.com/closing-higher-educations-ai-readiness-gap/

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Scaling higher education is no longer a theoretical strategy. As the sector moves deeper into consolidation, institutional leaders need to confront whether their operating models, credential structures, partnerships, and delivery systems are built for the market ahead.

In this episode of the Changing Higher Ed® podcast, Dr. Drumm McNaughton speaks with Dr. Stephen Spinelli, President of Babson College, about how an entrepreneurial mindset can help higher education respond to consolidation, AI disruption, and changing learner expectations.

Drawing from his experience as co-founder of Jiffy Lube International and president of one of the nation's leading entrepreneurship institutions, Spinelli explains why higher education's anti-scale culture has become a strategic problem. He argues that demand for learning is growing, but the sector's delivery model has not kept pace with what students, employers, and adult learners now need.

The conversation covers how AI is changing the economics of small-unit, high-quality education, why credentials are likely to become more modular and measurable, and how partnerships with other institutions and industry will shape the next era of higher education. Spinelli also outlines why strategy must be tied to action, accountability, and institutional values that do not shift with every market signal.

This episode is especially relevant for presidents, boards, and senior leaders working through questions of scale, consolidation, strategic partnerships, AI-enabled learning, and long-term institutional relevance.

• Why higher education is showing classic signs of market consolidation
• How anti-scale thinking limits institutional durability and adaptability
• Why demand for learning is growing while delivery models lag behind
• How agentic AI changes the economics of small-unit education
• Why credentials may become smaller, more measurable, and more industry-aligned
• How strategic partnerships may extend beyond institutions into corporate and industry networks
• Why lifelong learner relationships may become a new revenue and relevance model
• How quarterly board-level strategic execution reviews keep institutions accountable
• Why liberal arts capabilities matter more in an AI-enabled environment

• Jiffy Lube's early growth model and what it taught Spinelli about scale
• Babson's shift from entrepreneurship to entrepreneurial leadership
• Babson's network of 45 or 46 partner schools building entrepreneurial leadership capacity
• A group of seven New England institutions exploring partnership models to save resources
• AI-supported teaching models that could allow one expert to reach far more learners
• The doctor, lawyer, educator relationship model for lifelong learning

Three Key Takeaways for Higher Education Leadership

1. Institutions need a crisp and understandable value proposition that clearly explains why they exist and what they believe.
2. Mission and values must drive strategy so institutions can adapt their actions without abandoning their core purpose.
3. Strategic plans must be actionable, measurable, and reviewed regularly by the board so they inform decisions instead of sitting unused.

This episode offers a direct look at what higher education leaders need to confront as consolidation, AI, modular learning, and partnership-driven delivery reshape the sector.

Read the transcript: https://changinghighered.com/scaling-higher-education-entrepreneurial-approach/

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