by Jenny Maxwell, Head of Superhuman for Education
The theme of this year's ASU+GSV was the power of fusion. And honestly, it was the most accurate description I've seen of what's actually working in AI and higher education right now. Not AI in isolation or institutions waiting for the perfect playbook. Instead, the kind of breakthroughs that happen when the right people, the right institutions, and the right ideas find each other.
As I think back on the week, three ideas kept coming up in sessions, in hallways, and in conversations in between.
Great AI frameworks are built with people, not for them
Most institutions have put real thought into their AI governance frameworks. The challenge isn't intention, it's translation. A framework that makes sense at the leadership level doesn't always land with the same clarity for the faculty member navigating a specific situation on a specific day.
The institutions making real progress are treating that gap as an opportunity. They're building governance together, across departments, roles, and levels of the organization, so the people it affects can actually act on it. When governance is built with people rather than handed down to them, something shifts. It stops being a policy and becomes a shared direction that everyone can move in together.
AI adoption starts with enablement
Faculty want to do their best work. They want tools that make them more effective and help their students progress. The institutions seeing real AI adoption have figured out something that runs counter to most implementation playbooks: don't mandate. Don't frame AI use or lack thereof as a deficit to fix. Listen first, find out what people actually want, and build from there.
To get started, find your champions. There is a faculty member at almost every institution doing something remarkable with AI right now. Give them five minutes in front of their peers and let the story do the work. A fellow English teacher showing how a tool changed their grading process will inspire more people than any top-down rollout.
AI agents are transforming what's possible on campus
For institutions and educators, AI agents remain a murky yet intriguing topic. This year, the conversation moved from "what if" to "here's what we’re building." The underlying idea gaining traction is simple but powerful: instead of prompting AI and interpreting whatever comes back, you give it a discrete assignment. That shift, from open-ended tool to purposeful collaborator, is what makes agents feel different from the AI tools that came before.
The institutions making real progress are testing out agents that do something specific: offload the transactional, repetitive work that consumes time but doesn't require human judgment. Rubric building. Generating quiz questions based on the assigned reading. Answering routine questions about course registration. When agents handle that work, faculty and staff get back something they rarely have enough of: the time and focus to do what only they can do.
Your institution is ready to unlock its full potential
The institutions that inspired us most at ASU+GSV weren't the ones with the biggest budgets or the boldest announcements. They were the ones building carefully, together, with their people at the center. And what they're unlocking for their faculty, their students, and their staff is worth imagining for your own.
This moment in higher education is full of possibility. If you're ready to build something together, we'd love to talk. Reach out to our education team.