An artificial intelligence (AI) survey conducted by Ellucian found that higher education institutional adoption is accelerating, with 66% of respondents reporting their institution is currently leveraging AI, an increase from 49% year-over-year. Eighty-eight percent of respondents say they expect institutional AI use to increase over the next two years. At the same time, privacy and trust concerns continue to shape how leaders prioritize use cases and governance.

As personal use nears saturation, respondents report institutions are increasingly formalizing AI strategy and investment:

• 90% report using AI (up from 84% the previous year) while 7% remain non-users with no intention to adopt.
• Nearly half (43%) say their institution's strategic plan includes a focus on AI.
• Nearly two-thirds of executive leaders indicate their institution already allocates budget specifically for AI, most commonly through a broader technology or innovation budget (48%). Another 21% are planning or exploring budget allocation.

Executive leaders continue to prioritize "lower-risk, high-return" applications where AI protects and augments decision-making:

• Leaders most frequently say AI can deliver the greatest institutional benefits in the areas of Business & Operations (68%), Data & Analytics (59%), and Marketing, Admissions & Enrollment (51%).
• When asked which specific AI use would be most valuable, executive leaders' top choice is cybersecurity threat detection and response automation, followed by revenue/expense forecasting and identifying at-risk students.
• Respondents report increasing skepticism where AI influences high-stakes, human-centered decisions — including student learning. The share who say AI does "more good than harm" for student learning declined to 45% from 55%, while perceived positive impact on academic integrity improved to 27% from 16%.

While some concerns are easing, trust and governance remain central to scaling adoption:

• Data security and privacy remain the leading barrier at both the personal and institutional levels (61% and 56%, respectively).
• New barriers are emerging, including environmental impact (cited by more than 1 in 5 respondents among their top three barriers), and concerns about AI-related role elimination rising year over year (7% to 14%).
• Even as familiarity grows, training remains the most-cited resource for effective adoption; 83% of Financial Aid respondents indicate they need AI training.

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