With both hopeful and cautionary messaging, thought leaders and practitioners advocate for proactive AI adoption to drive equity and innovation in higher education.

Last week, members of Kresge’s Education Program team attended Achieving The Dream’s (ATD) DREAM Conference in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. ATD, a longtime Kresge partner, convenes thousands of community college practitioners at its annual event to exchange strategies for accelerating student success.

This year, artificial intelligence (AI) emerged as a common theme throughout the conference’s plenaries and breakout sessions. Topics ranged from leveraging AI for personalized learning, to streamlining administrative tasks for faculty and bridging employment gaps for students.

The opening plenary featured keynote speaker and scholar Ruha Benjamin, professor at Princeton University and founding director of the Ida B. Wells Just Data Lab, who stressed the power of divergent thinking to ensure that AI does not simply replicate existing inequities in student access and success.

“We are pattern makers. We have the choice to weave new patterns and engage in new practices,” Benjamin said. She cautioned against implicit biases and perceived objectivity baked into AI and other emerging tools, stressing the importance of educating a generation of students capable of challenging inequities perpetuated by technology.

“This is an invitation for us to think about the very kinds of knowledge we need around the table. We need the social sciences, we need the humanities, we need the arts in terms of shaping the shared future we all have to inhabit,” she said.

Wednesday’s plenary, AI in the Classroom: Revolutionizing Teaching, Learning, and Student Success, examined both the promises and pitfalls of AI in academics, emphasizing the urgency of proactive engagement with AI to shape teaching practices.

Innovation expert and AI thought leader Ethan Mollick, a professor of entrepreneurship at the Wharton School, argued that AI is not simply a tool, but a catalyst for reimagining every aspect of teaching. “Parents are adopting it, teachers are adopting it, college instructors are adopting it. AI can do any assignment you throw at it. The homework apocalypse is already here…we’re clearly not going back.”

Mollick pointed out that AI can augment the work of educators by streamlining routine tasks and serving as personalized tutors for students. He also noted that AI can empower faculty to become more effective mentors by acting as “co-pilots,” allowing teachers to focus on fostering creativity, critical thinking and meaningful dialogue with students. Mollick emphasized that educators tend to be particularly good at using AI. “It turns out if you have good theory of mind, if you’re good at teaching, you’re good at instructing AI,” Mollick said. “All of you are now coders. You can figure out what AI does in your field to make it positive and not negative.”

Challenges and fears

While acknowledging AI’s benefits, panelists did not shy away from addressing challenges such as academic integrity, as traditional AI detectors struggle to differentiate between genuine student work and machine-generated output. They warned that relying solely on these tools could penalize students—especially non-native English speakers—by misclassifying their efforts. Panelists agreed that while AI can provide rapid feedback and process large volumes of data, it cannot replace the nuanced understanding that educators bring through their cultural insights, empathy and contextual expertise. Speakers also discussed the potential of artificial intelligence to drive changes in teaching in ways that benefit all students, including the most marginalized.

ATD President and CEO Karen A. Stout cautioned, “We have a responsibility to address the legitimate fears presented by AI while leveraging its promise of personalized learning and beyond.” She added, “Strategic adoption of AI can be an important tool to bridge and close the gaps in opportunity that our students face inside and outside the classroom.”

Meanwhile, Karen Colbert, math department chair at Keweenaw Bay Ojibwa Community College and ATD coach, stressed that it’s important to “ensure that faculty work with AI centers on students’ cultural identities,” noting, “AI might be able to analyze patterns, but it lacks the wisdom that comes from lived experience.”

At a time when AI is rapidly evolving, Kresge’s Education practice is considering how it can support higher education partners to keep pace with technological change and equitably enrich the academic journey for every student. “We’ve been working on predictive analytics and Big Data for about 10 years, so we’ll begin by working with our existing educational technology grantees to learn more, especially on AI’s impact on quality education,” said Bill Moses, managing director of Kresge’s Education Program. “AI is not a panacea and poses risks with algorithms that could reinforce inequities. On the other hand, we see many opportunities for AI to improve transfer and supporting students needing developmental education.”