Check back on Sept. 10 for our newest keynote announcement.

A group of university presidents will take the mainstage to share insights on designing an AI-ready university and graduate. More details coming soon!

Two leading AI voices will help frame the big questions at the center of this year’s gathering. Join for a discussion with:

John Markoff, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author of Machines of Loving Grace: The Quest for Common Ground Between Humans and Robots

The Honorable Sethuraman Pachanathan, ASU professor and Former Director, U.S. National Science Foundation

John Markoff will be onsite for an exclusive book signing for Machines of Loving Grace: The Quest for Common Ground Between Humans and Robots

College athletic departments are among the most complex operating environments inside a university — simultaneously running a sports organization, media business, live-events operation, fundraising enterprise and student-support system. What happens when that entire organization begins to operate differently because of AI?

This session will explore what it actually means to build an agentic athletic department: where agents can act rather than simply answer, where humans move from executing routine processes to directing and judging them, and where institutional knowledge becomes available across traditional organizational silos. Just as importantly, the conversation will examine the boundaries — where human judgment remains essential and how leaders build trust, governance and accountability as agents assume more responsibility.

Speakers:

• Michael Cohen, GSV Sports (moderator)
• Lisa Young, Sun Devil Athletics
• Jeff Kunowski, SPORTx at ASU
• Bronze | Track: AI stack for the enterprise

Moving from AI pilots to enterprise adoption requires more than technology. Leaders from the University of California, Irvine will share how they built an AI ecosystem serving more than 30,000 users through scalable infrastructure, flexible architecture and intentional adoption strategies. Learn how institutional ownership, governance, training and community engagement are helping move AI from experimentation to sustainable, campus-wide impact.

Presenters:

• Xanat Hernandez, Director of Communications, University of California, Irvine
• Sarkis Daglian, Director of AI, Cloud and Client Solutions, University of California, Irvine
• Crimson | Track: Recruit, retain and engage with agentic AI

In March 2025, we launched an AI tool in our portal search bar (myUMBC). For students, the tool has access to their most important data and they can ask either generic or personalized questions. If I ask how to register for classes, the answer will explain the registration process, identify my assigned advisor, detail how to schedule an appointment and name my academic advocate for assistance. Additionally, if the system assigns me a registration appointment, it tells me the date and time I can register for classes. This kind of personalized AI search is now being extended to integrate with our service management platform in the event a human needs to be involved in servicing their question. This tool is now evolving beyond supporting students to supporting staff and faculty.

Presenter:

Jack Suess, Vice President of IT and CIO, University of Maryland, Baltimore County

What does truly personalized learning actually require, and what's possible right now? At Gies College of Business, we've been running a series of experiments we call Learning 3.0: using agentic AI to test adaptive explanations, personalized video, custom practice, and individualized feedback at scale. We built this work with a team of Gies Disruption Lab students and recent graduates, keeping real learners at the center of the design process. This session is an honest account of what we tried, what surprised us, and what a genuinely dynamic, student-responsive course looks like, and what it takes to get there.

Presenters:

• Julia Sabin, Sr. Manager of Academic Innovation, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
• Adam King, Director of Innovation and Transformation, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

ASU host: Dan Gruber, Associate Dean of Teaching and Learning and Clinical Professor, ASU W. P. Carey School of Business

Preparing learners for an AI-enabled future cannot begin at college graduation or end with a single degree. This session explores how Arizona State University is developing a connected approach to AI readiness across the learner lifecycle: from K-12 (ASU Prep Academies) to career transitions (ASU for Life). Discussions will range from designing AI literacy and student agency for K-12 students to helping adult learners understand their skills, identify relevant credentials and navigate evolving career opportunities. Attendees will leave with insights into designing responsible AI-enabled pathways that connect school, higher education, skills development, and lifelong career mobility.

Presenters:

• Julie Morgenthal, Chief Technology Officer, ASU Preparatory Academy
• Janel White-Taylor, Associate Director of Intelligent Learning Systems, Mary Lou Fulton College for Teaching and Learning Innovation
• Tessa Jones, Director of Product, ASU Learning Enterprise

ASU host and moderator: Marco Serrato, Vice President, ASU Learning Enterprise

As AI permeates higher education, institutions face a critical strategy challenge: simply layering chatbots and AI agents onto legacy workflows yields only incremental gains. True transformation requires an AI-native mindset that re-engineers processes from the ground up rather than automating the status quo. This presentation from AWS and higher education leaders shares transformational AI use cases, including agentic AI, and highlights process mapping as a foundational tool to visualize and reimagine how work flows across admissions, advising, research administration, student services, and operations. By mapping current-state processes, institutions can identify redundancies, hand-off failures, and decision bottlenecks that no single chatbot or agent can fix alone. The opportunity to redesign those processes with AI agents woven into core logic, data pathways, and decision points presents the foundational opportunity to build scale. The promise is not faster versions of old workflows but fundamentally new operating models, powered by intelligent agents, that improve student outcomes, reduce administrative burden, and position universities to adapt as AI evolves.

Presenter:

Mary Strain, AI and Machine Learning Strategist, AWS

ASU host: John Rome, deputy CIO, ASU Enterprise Technology

In today’s classroom, AI is doing more than generating content. This session brings together two faculty members from two colleges at Arizona State University to showcase how they’ve designed AI experiences that support meaningful classroom dialogue, interactive learning and transparent assessment. They will demonstrate how VibeCheck supports student-teacher dialogue and responsive instruction, while IntegrityShield and GamED.AI promote assessment transparency, academic integrity, and gamified learning. Attendees will get a first hand look at tools that use AI to strengthen classroom dialogue, authentic assessment, student engagement and trust.

Speakers:

• Kevin Beyer, Executive Director, Information Technology, The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at ASU
• Vivek Gupta, Assistant Professor, School of Computing and Augmented Intelligence at ASU
• Tyler Kilbourne, Assistant Director of Information Technology, The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at ASU
• Sun Devil Ballroom 2

As AI moves from experimentation into teaching, learning and core university systems, higher education institutions face a larger question: What does responsible adoption look like at scale?

This session brings together perspectives on the pedagogical, operational and governance decisions that should shape an institutional approach to AI. Panelists will explore how universities can ground AI strategy in evidence and student experience while establishing clear ownership of decisions, data and outcomes. From protecting the intellectual work at the heart of learning to coordinating responsibility across academic units, IT and technology partners, the discussion will examine where current approaches fall short and what institutions need to build for what comes next.

Presenters:

• Kim Channpraseut, University of Wisconsin-Madison
• Brad Gobby, Curtin University, Australia

AWS is the premier industry partner of Agentic AI and the Student Experience. More details on their featured keynote speaker coming soon!

Up next: Attendees can select to join from our interactive industry workshops or attend breakout sessions.

More details coming soon.

More details coming soon.

More details coming soon.

As colleges and universities rapidly adopt AI tools, many institutions discover there is no clear answer to who actually "owns" AI strategy, governance, procurement, implementation, or risk management. Is AI led by IT, academic affairs, research, libraries, teaching and learning centers, innovation offices, or executive leadership? This panel explores how campuses are navigating fragmented decision-making, shared governance, faculty concerns, student expectations, and cross-functional coordination in real time. Panelists will share emerging governance models, lessons learned, and practical approaches for leading through uncertainty while balancing innovation, trust, and institutional responsibility.

Presenters:

• Mike Kennedy, Deputy CIO, University of California, Riverside
• Anupam Joshi, Vice Provost and Chief AI Officer, University of Maryland, Baltimore County

Moderator: Bridget Burns, CEO, University Innovation Alliance

As universities begin deploying agents that can access data and take action, they need an institutional foundation that supports both trusted information and increasingly complex AI workflows. This session brings together two complementary approaches to building that foundation. Presenters from Vanderbilt University and the University of St. Thomas will show how governed data products and extensible multi-agent architecture can work together to move institutions beyond fragmented pilots toward enterprise AI systems designed for real operational and academic needs.

Presenters:

• Allen Karns, Chief AI Technology Officer, Vanderbilt University
• Jena Zangs, Chief Data and AI Officer, University of St. Thomas

ASU host: John Rome, Deputy CIO, ASU Enterprise Technology

Institutional governance was built for stability: committees deliberate, policies are approved, and structures hold until the next review cycle. That model has worked for decades. And now, AI has broken it. These systems act, adapt, and decide at a velocity no governance process can match, leaving institutions writing policies for a technology that has already moved on. But with this challenge, an opportunity emerges. Agentic AI is surfacing what has always been true: structures built for stability are fragile when they meet velocity. The institutions that will navigate this moment are the ones willing to build governance that is fluid, resilient, and human-centered. A global study on AI literacies and governance spanning six continents funded by WCET is revealing how leaders actually make these decisions and where AI literacies development strengthens governance capacity. This panel shares what the research is finding and what it means for institutions ready to govern differently.

Speakers:

• Melissa Vito, Vice Provost of Academic Innovation, The University of Texas at San Antonio
• Angela Gunder, CEO and Founder Opened Culture

ASU host: Amy Pate, Director of Learning Technology, Office of the University Provost, ASU

More details coming soon!

Agentic AI is creating new opportunities to transform the student experience, strengthen institutional operations and expand access. Leaders from Harvard University, the University of Florida and the California State University Office of the Chancellor will share how they are leading AI transformation at scale through enterprise strategy, governance, cybersecurity, workforce readiness and responsible innovation. Join this executive conversation to learn how technology leaders are building trusted, AI-ready institutions.

Presenters:

• Ed Clark, Chief Information Officer, California State University Office of the Chancellor
• Additional speakers coming soon

ASU host: Lev Gonick, Chief Information Officer, Arizona State University

As artificial intelligence rapidly reshapes the workforce, colleges and universities face a dual challenge: preparing students for an evolving labor market while simultaneously adapting their own institutions in real time.

This conversation will explore how higher education leaders are navigating AI implementation across teaching and learning, student support, operations, workforce preparation, and institutional governance. Panelists will discuss emerging approaches to embedding AI fluency, career readiness, and durable skills across disciplines, while also addressing the organizational realities leaders face as policies, technologies, faculty expectations, employer demands, and student behaviors shift at unprecedented speed.

Panelists:

Peyton Burgess, Emerging Technologies Program Manager, Virginia Commonwealth University

Beth Meyers, Chief Information Officer, University of Colorado

Jason Keith, Senior Vice President and Provost, Iowa State University

Moderator: Bridget Burns, CEO, University Innovation Alliance

Agentic and adaptive AI is finally making it possible to deliver on learning's long-standing promise of personalized pathways at scale to support student engagement. By automating the creation of tailored scenarios, skill assessments, and feedback loops, AI dramatically reduces the time and cost of developing truly adaptive courseware and other agents critical in supporting student success. This panel brings together a technology leader driving AI strategy across 9 campuses and one of the largest online programs collectively supporting over 55,000 students and an adaptive learning platform CEO to explore how agentic AI can personalize the student experience. Attendees will learn how agentic and adaptive AI can accelerate course design, integrate adaptive and immersive elements within existing institutional infrastructure, and capture skills data that proves student mastery, not just completion.

Presenters:

• Brian Davis, Executive Director for Strategic and Academic Technology, Louisiana State University
• Phillip Miller, CEO, Skillwell
• Crimson | Track: Innovation in teaching, assessment and faculty support

As AI reshapes entry-level work, higher education must reconsider how graduates are prepared for the workforce. Some of the challenges include developing AI fluency and helping learners build the judgment and adaptability needed to use these tools well. This session will explore how colleges and universities can connect workforce signals more directly to curriculum and course design. Drawing on several institutional approaches, speakers will examine how to identify where programs need to evolve and create learning experiences that better reflect the demands of an AI-influenced workplace.

Presenters:

• Helen Chen, Professor of Computer Science and Former Senior Vice Provost for Academic Strategy and Innovation, North Carolina State University
• Kathleen deLaski, Author and Professor, Education Design Lab, George Mason University, Harvard Project on Workforce

ASU host: Sukhwant Jhaj, Vice Provost for Academic Innovation and Student Achievement, ASU

As generative and agentic AI reshape how people learn and work, business schools have an opportunity to create more active, adaptive experiences that encourage learners to test ideas, make decisions, build connections and apply new knowledge in real time.

Drawing on emerging work from two business schools — IESE Business School, a premier, globally ranked graduate business school in Barcelona, Spain, and Arizona State University’s W.P. Carey School of Business, the largest business school in the United States — this session will explore how agentic AI can support more personalized and self-directed learning journeys.

Presenters:

• Maria Perillo, IESE Business School, Spain
• Ballroom 6

More details coming soon!

More details coming soon!

This main stage panel will feature insights from global, national and institutional research on the state of AI and higher education. Stay tuned for speaker announcements!

The Impact Award honors a remarkable individual whose work exemplifies the power of leadership, compassion and systems change – and reminds us that technology must always serve humans first.

This year’s Impact Award will be presented to Paula Starr, Chief Information Officer for Cherokee Nation, to recognize her work to intertwine Cherokee values with cutting-edge IT solutions.

Up next: Attendees can select to join from our interactive industry workshops or attend breakout sessions.

Details coming soon!

Industry leader workshop

Details coming soon!

A diverse group of the first-ever university Chief AI Officers from across the U.S. will join a panel discussion. More details coming soon!

Additional details coming soon.

Universities around the world are moving beyond early AI experiments toward systems that can support students across courses and institutional services. This session brings together initiatives from the United States and Mexico, pairing an institution-wide generative AI platform with an academic virtual assistant evolving into a more agentic learning companion The two examples offer a global perspective on what it takes to move from a promising AI tool to an institutionally supported system. Presenters will explore how local context shapes that work while highlighting the shared challenge of building AI infrastructure that students can trust and institutions can sustain.

Presenters:

• Özgür Yılmazel, Director of Data Core and a Senior Research Fellow, UMass Amherst
• Anthony Gilberto Ayala Bastidas, Tec de Monterrey, Mexico

ASU host: Paula Hildalgo, Assistant Vice President, ASU's Office of Government and Community Engagement

Higher education institutions struggle to understand the full student journey due to fragmented systems, inconsistent identifiers, and incomplete data. This session explores how two universities — Western Governors University and Arizona State University — are, creating a unified and continuously improving view of the learner. By combining vector search, LLM-driven matching, and scalable data workflows, IRDA moves beyond static integration toward a more agentic model where systems improve match quality, adapt to new sources, and unlock real-time insight. Attendees will see how identity resolution becomes a foundational capability for student experience measurement, enabling more accurate analytics, targeted interventions, and reduced friction across the learner lifecycle.

Speakers:

• Eric Hansen, Director of Student Journey Measurement, Western Governors University

ASU host: Chandi Cumaranatunge, ASU Enterprise Technology

Higher education is entering a new phase of AI adoption. Institutions are moving beyond generative AI tools toward emerging forms of agentic AI capable of reshaping how students are experiencing learning. Yet many institutions are still grappling with foundational questions: what role should AI agents play? Where can they meaningfully support students without replacing human relationships, judgement, and care? And how do institutions move from isolated pilots toward intentional strategy?

Grounded in recent research, this session will explore institutional approaches related to agentic AI in higher education. The discussion will focus on examining how institutions are beginning to use AI agents for a wide variety of course and student support. Panelists will share their perspectives about emerging practices, what tensions institutions are encountering, and where meaningful opportunities may exist.

Presenters:

• Brandon Rich, Director of AI Enablement, University of Notre Dame
• Ayham Boucher, Director of AI Innovation Lab, Cornell University
• Jennifer Gebelein, Director of AI Integration and Faculty Success Florida International University
• Kim Arnold, Director of Teaching and Learning, EDUCAUSE

ASU host: Kyle Bowen, Enterprise Technology

Across the United States, community colleges serve nearly 40% of undergraduate students. Today, these institutions are working to embed responsible AI systems that reduce friction, strengthen institutional readiness, and improve student persistence and success. In this session, leaders across three community colleges – Pima Community College, Merced College and Calbright College – come together to highlight their unique and shared experiences for designing human-centered AI systems.

Presenters:

• Tony Sovak, Director LMS & eLearning Quality, Pima Community College
• Kody Stimpson, Dean of Innovation and Institutional Effectiveness, Merced College
• Vivek Vyas, Chief Product Officer, Calbright College

ASU host: Daniel Corr, Vice Provost, Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College

Agentic AI can generate learning content and assessment questions at unprecedented speed, but scale alone does not guarantee quality. Poorly constructed questions may confuse learners, reinforce bias, or fail to measure the intended knowledge and skills. This session introduces a practical, research-informed framework for evaluating AI-generated, scenario-based questions across multiple dimensions. Drawing on work with ReQUESTA, a multi-agent system for generating comprehension questions, speakers will demonstrate how expert rubrics, human review, and systematic comparisons can help educators and developers assess and refine AI outputs. Attendees will leave with actionable strategies for integrating quality evaluation into AI-enabled learning workflows while keeping educator expertise and student learning at the center.

Presenters:

• Peixia Shao, Postdoctoral Scholar, Learning Engineering Institute, Arizona State University
• Katerina Christhilf Sabino, Graduate Service Assistant, Learning Engineering Institute, Arizona State University,

ASU host and moderator: Danielle McNamara, Executive Director, Learning Engineering Institute

As institutions move from AI experimentation to implementation, educators need practical ways to integrate advanced tools and assessment into learning ecosystems. This session argues that meaningful AI integration is an institutional responsibility, not just an individual effort, requiring structures, guidance, and support for effective and responsible use.

APLU has begun collecting institutional examples, and presenters will highlight approaches for integrating AI into instructional design and faculty development. The session emphasizes that institutions must go beyond encouraging experimentation by establishing clear expectations, professional learning, and cross-functional support to enable intentional, pedagogically grounded use. Participants will leave with strategies to foster culture change, align AI with faculty needs and learning goals, and support sustainable teaching innovation.

Speaker:

• Karen Vignare, Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU)
• Ballroom 6 | Track: Innovation in teaching, assessment and faculty support

AI offers the potential to provide timely, personalized feedback to thousands of learners, but responsible implementation requires more than generating scores and comments. This session examines the design, deployment and evaluation of human-in-the-loop AI feedback systems. A combination session with teams from ASU Learning Enterprise and ASU New College will examine how higher education can deliver timely, personalized AI-supported feedback at scale while preserving instructor oversight, transparency, fairness and student trust. From Timely Grader, a human-in-the-loop AI feedback system, to a multi-agent grading assistant designed to support 75,000 learner submissions, speakers will examine how higher education can deliver timely, personalized AI-supported feedback at scale while preserving instructor oversight, transparency, fairness, and student trust.

Speakers:

• Marjory Marshall, Senior Program Manager, ASU Learning Enterprise,
• Yixuan He, Assistant Professor, New College of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences, Arizona State University
• Catheryn Reardon, Assistant Teaching Professor of Psychology and AI Strategist for Psychology Digital Immersion Programs, New College of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences, Arizona State University

We’re gathering education and industry leaders to help chart the future of education and AI. However, it’s critical we hear from today’s students. This main stage panel will feature a diverse group of students from across the U.S. to share insights on AI and the student experience.

Details coming soon.

Some of the most meaningful conversations happen around the table. This invite-only lunch session extends a unique opportunity to connect with peers, share experiences and build relationships across institutions and industries.

Hosted by ASU Executive Vice President and University Provost Nancy Gonzales and GSV Ventures Managing Partner Deborah Quazzo, with special guest and 2026 Impact Award Paula Starr.

Explore how human-centered AI is reshaping health education—from curriculum and student readiness to assessment and clinical learning. Discover a practical framework for developing AI-ready health professionals who can evaluate AI outputs, recognize bias and limitations, protect sensitive information, and preserve human judgment and empathy. Examine how AI-enabled assessment tools can evaluate not only whether students reach the right answer, but also how they reason and perform throughout the learning process. Finally, learn how Avery, an agentic AI nurse assistant, is being evaluated as a learning partner and interprofessional teammate in educational and clinical settings.

Presenters:

• Judy Karshmer, Dean, Professor, & ASU Chief Wellness Officer, Edson College of Nursing and Health Innovation
• Julie Liss, Senior Associate Dean and Professor, College of Health Solutions
• Jeremi Smith, ASU John Shufeldt School of Medicine and Medical Engineering

ASU host and moderator: Jordan Coulston, Assistant Dean of Clinical Education, ASU John Shufeldt School of Medicine and Medical Engineering

AI learning agents are moving beyond standalone chatbots to become integrated parts of the course experience. This session explores two institutionally developed platforms that give instructors meaningful control over how AI supports learning, while reducing the need for complex prompt writing or technical configuration. Presenters Joshua Smith of the University of Utah and James Castle of the University of Georgia will examine what it takes to move these tools from individual course experiments to institutionally supported learning systems. Through two different models, the session will show how AI learning agents can scale without losing sight of instructional intent or institutional responsibility.

Speakers:

• Joshua Smith, University of Utah
• James Castle, University of Georgia
• Crimson

As generative AI becomes part of students’ everyday academic work, unclear expectations can lead to confusion, inconsistent grading, and accusations of misuse. National University’s RAISE 5 guidelines give faculty and students a clear, field-tested framework for when and how AI can be used. The session provides insights from both faculty and academic leadership perspectives on how institutions can communicate clear standards for acceptable AI use while redesigning assignments to evaluate how students direct, critique, validate, and document AI-generated work. Leave with strategies for reducing ambiguity, strengthening academic integrity, and shifting assessment toward student judgment, reflection and responsible human-AI collaboration.

Speakers:

• Tory Temple, Academic Program Director of Single Subject Credential Program, National University
• Irene Tsapara, Professor, National University

ASU host: Gemma Garcia, Executive Director, Learning Technology, ASU Office of the University Provost

Details coming soon.

At ASU, industry partners are helping fuel innovation. From designing recruitment and support agents with Salesforce to being the first university to partner with OpenAI, attendees will gain a practical look at how university-industry partnerships can move emerging AI capabilities into meaningful applications for students, faculty and staff.

Presenters details coming soon.

Join us on the main stage for a final creative performance that ties in AI, creativity and humanity. More details coming soon!