Closing Higher Education's AI Readiness Gap with Human-First Transformation

About this episode

The episode discusses the challenges and strategies for AI adoption in higher education, emphasizing the need for a human-first approach to transformation.

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. Topics Covered Why incremental change management cannot keep pace with AI How AI differs from…

People in this episode

Host: Dr. Drumm McNaughton

Guest: Nikki Barua

Topics covered

• AI in higher education
• change management
• institutional transformation
• technology adoption
• human readiness
• AI infrastructure

Keywords

• AI readiness
• higher education
• institutional change
• technology disruption
• transformation cycles
• AI pilots
• student engagement

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: FlipWork

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