Ask an educator what learning success looks like in higher education, and they’ll tell you it’s not just what students know. With enough time and effort, most students can name the parts of the human lymphatic system or recite the laws of physics. That’s knowledge. Intelligence is what students do with it—how they make connections, analyze meaning, and take ideas to new places.

Higher education institutions excel at developing human intelligence. To get the most out of AI, education leaders can apply the same logic: knowledge is the raw material; intelligence comes through making connections.

As I step into an expanded role supporting Microsoft’s work in education, one thing is already clear: higher education does not lack knowledge, ambition, or innovation. The opportunity is to connect those strengths more effectively so institutions can translate them into meaningful outcomes. This is also one way Microsoft’s broader commitment to AI in education comes to life in higher education. Connecting institutional intelligence is not an end in itself. Its value lies in what it enables people to achieve across teaching, learning, research, and campus life.

A confluence of long-term trends is putting financial pressure on higher education. Birth rates are declining in much of the world, and as a result, fewer potential students enter higher education each year. The number of United States high school graduates reached a historic peak of about 3.9 million in 2025 and is projected to decline 13% by 2041.¹

A smaller student pool means steeper competition among colleges and universities and decreased revenue from tuition, while research funding is becoming increasingly scarce.

At the same time, students want to see the ROI for their college degrees, and the job market they’ll enter is changing in real time. LinkedIn research projects that roughly 70% of the skills used in most jobs will change by 2030,² with AI as the chief catalyst, and 66% of leaders say they wouldn’t hire someone without AI literacy skills.³

Institutions need to provide excellent student outcomes and experiences, develop AI skills and literacy, engage alumni, and produce innovative research—and do it all with fewer resources.

Connecting AI with institutional data, knowledge, and workflows can help colleges and universities address specific priorities across student experiences, research, instruction, and operations.

Preparing students for an AI-shaped workplace requires more than familiarity with new tools. It requires opportunities to question an answer, evaluate evidence, and explain a judgment, with faculty deciding where AI belongs in that learning process.

Microsoft partners with many colleges and universities that are already connecting AI with institutional data, workflows, and governance to advance student success; expand capacity for faculty and staff across instruction, research, and operations; and scale AI with trust. Connecting information across an institution also requires clear decisions about who can access it, how it may be used, and who remains accountable. Those decisions belong alongside workflow design, not after deployment.

• California State University San Marcos (CSUSM) chose Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Microsoft Copilot Studio to connect data, workflows, and AI across the student journey. The result: 50% faster email response times and more consistent, connected student support.
• Miami Dade College drove a 15% increase in student pass rates and a 12% drop in course dropout rates by adopting Microsoft Copilot for student learning assistance.
• The University of Kentucky implemented standardized AI institution-wide on a secure platform with a comprehensive governance framework designed to build AI literacy and encourage innovation.

Now, Microsoft IQ provides new ways for higher education to connect siloed information and ground AI in institutional IQ for more effective outcomes. Microsoft IQ provides an intelligence layer that can help institutions:

• Connect AI and agents to the systems and workflows people already use, providing relevant institutional context.
• Bring together shared intelligence to help AI and agents deliver more relevant and actionable results.
• Support the use of AI and agents within an institution’s existing security, identity, and compliance framework.

To drive meaningful impact with AI, institutions need strategic, coordinated adoption. Decisions around AI shouldn’t revolve around tools or models, but rather what the institution wants to achieve and how AI can get it there. This is not the case at most colleges and universities today: the majority are rapidly adopting AI, but only 22% of them say they have an institution-wide AI strategy.⁴

This changes the starting point for the AI conversation. The first question shouldn’t be, “Where can we deploy AI?” but “What does our institution already know that, if better connected, could help students, faculty, researchers, and staff achieve more?”

The institutions that lead the next phase of AI will not be the ones with the most tools. They will be the ones that connect the intelligence they already hold—programs, records, research, policies, and operational know-how—to AI in ways that are secure, governed, and genuinely actionable.

Our new paper, “Unlocking Intelligence in Higher Education,” explores ways to put these ideas into action. The paper outlines three key moves higher education institutions can make to build a foundation that enables them to harness the power of institutional IQ and safely drive impact with AI at scale.

The conversations education leaders need to have now are about building those foundations, regardless of what tools they choose. We’re looking forward to discussing these topics with higher education leaders in person at the EDUCAUSE Annual Conference in Denver, Colorado from September 29, 2026 to October 2, 2026.

Microsoft’s commitment to higher education is to help institutions put their collective intelligence to work. By connecting AI, data, and everyday workflows with strong governance, we can help institutions pursue the outcomes that matter: more responsive student support, greater capacity for faculty and researchers, and graduates prepared to navigate a changing world.

¹ Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education, Report: High school graduates will peak next year, then most states will see steady declines through 2041.

² LinkedIn Talent Blog, Skills on the Rise in 2025, March 2025.

³ LinkedIn, AI and the Global Economy: Unlocking Growth and Reshaping Work.

⁴ EDUCAUSE, 2025 AI Landscape Study, February 2025.