This week on The VineDown, I sat down with David Weil, the longtime CIO and Senior VP of Strategic Services & Initiatives at Ithaca College. He’s a man who has survived every major tech wave higher ed has ever thrown at him. Mainframes. Early PCs. The dawn of the internet. Mobile. SaaS. Y2K panic. He’s seen it all.
But when I asked him how AI compares?
He didn’t hesitate: “Nothing has hit higher ed this fast or this hard.”
This episode is your hype-free, deeply human roadmap to understanding AI’s real impact on the operating system of the institution (and how to prepare students, staff, and leadership for what’s coming next).
We covered SO much ground on the future of AI in higher ed and hope you learn a ton from this episode.
00:00 — Cold open: explicit E… earned
01:20 — David’s title, portfolio, and why HR + IT + analytics belong together
03:00 — “Why does AI feel different from every tech wave before it?”
05:30 — The speed of AI adoption and why higher ed hasn’t had time to breathe
06:45 — Preparing students for “Earth” in an AI-impacted world
08:00 — HI (Human Intelligence) and the role of liberal arts
11:40 — AI as the new operating system of the institution
12:20 — Generative AI vs. applied AI (and why nuance matters)
13:30 — The perfect AI use case: Ithaca’s iCare story
16:20 — Data as the new currency: dashboards, governance, culture
18:00 — How IT + IR merged into a unified analytics engine
21:00 — Breaking organizational silos for AI readiness
24:00 — The problem with point-solution AI and why it won’t scale
27:30 — Longitudinal AI: why it’s the real future
30:00 — Change management: transparency, fear, skills, and pilots
34:00 — What colleges should brace for in the next 3–5 years
36:20 — David’s crystal-ball prediction: frictionless student experience
37:00 — Wrap-up and final thoughts
Listen and watch this episode of The VineDown wherever you get your podcasts. And don’t forget to hit that subscribe button!
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