How Will AI Influence Higher Ed in 2025?

Inside Higher Ed

Kathryn Palmer

December 19, 2024

Two years after generative AI became part of the mainstream lexicon, higher education institutions are still grappling with how to integrate it into their educational missions and campus operations.

In 2023, much of the conversation about AI centered around academic integrity and fears that students would use AI as another cheating tool. In 2024, more universities started thinking about adopting these tools, though an Inside Higher Ed survey of chief technology officers showed that just 9 percent said they believed higher education is prepared for AI’s rise.

As the technology continues to evolve at a rapid pace, no one knows for sure how AI will influence higher education in 2025. But several experts offered Inside Higher Ed their predictions—and some guidance—for how colleges and universities will have to navigate AI’s potential in the new year.

AI has specific implications for teaching, learning, research, governance, educational technology, equity and access, but one commonality emerged across all of the responses: Ignoring AI isn’t an option for colleges and universities in 2025.

The following predictions have been edited for length and clarity.

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