EDUCAUSE 2025: ‘Future-Embracing’ Higher Ed with AI

From artificial intelligence adoption to change management, higher education leaders are learning how to ride — not resist — the waves of transformation shaping their campuses. 

At EDUCAUSE 2025, Dale Vander Wall, higher education industry adviser at Salesforce, moderated a conversation with university leaders on how to navigate uncertainty, embrace emerging technologies and lead with agility in an AI-driven landscape.

“I’ve never seen a time of disruption like we’re in right now,” said Wall, who previously served in various leadership positions at the University of Maryland for nearly 30 years. “There’s so much pressure, disruption and rising expectations from every constituent that we have, not just students. This is at the same time as demands pour in for more revenue and to be more efficient, all of those things, all at the same time. It is a pressure cooker.”

During the “Riding Waves of Uncertainty with Technology that Unlocks Efficiencies and Growth” session at EDUCAUSE 2025, Melik Khoury, president and CEO of Unity Environmental University, and Barb Roberts, associate vice president for enrollment management and acting senior  vice provost for academic affairs at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, unpacked how universities can harness innovation responsibly. 

“The pressure is put on to build a modern, future-embracing institution. I think we often used ‘future proofing.’ I’ve been around long enough that I don’t know if we ever fully future proof things, since they’re happening so fast,” Wall said. “Sometimes, they’re happening in ways that we don’t know that they’re going to unfold. So, the question is, are you going to be resistant, or are you going to embrace what the opportunities provide?”