The AI University: Disruptive by Design

In this episode of Infinite Stream, host Kyle Bylin is joined by Dr. Scott Latham, professor of strategy at UMass Lowell and author of “Are You Ready for the AI University?”—a provocative Chronicle of Higher Education essay calling academia to confront the era of artificial intelligence.

Together, they dive into higher ed’s moment of creative destruction, where AI isn’t just another tool but a force reshaping the foundations of learning, teaching, and institutional survival.

Latham draws on his experience in high-tech startups, research into organizational decline, and a lifelong fascination with creative destruction. The conversation explores the coming split between the “AI haves and have-nots,” why simply integrating AI into legacy systems will not save struggling colleges, and how tomorrow’s universities may be unrecognizable from today’s.

From the administrative back office to the classroom, the pair unpack how agentic systems and intelligent automation will challenge everything—from who gets hired to what gets taught to who gets left behind.

Takeaways

• AI is not a feature but a force: The “AI University” means rebuilding higher education from the ground up, not merely layering technology onto legacy systems.
• Creative destruction is underway: Higher ed faces an existential reckoning as AI disrupts economic models, teaching roles, and institutional value propositions.
• The next great divide: A chasm is opening between “AI haves and have-nots”—colleges able to invest in intelligent infrastructure, and those left behind.
• Administrative and faculty roles will shift: AI will first transform back-office processes and, soon after, rewire how courses are delivered and who teaches them.
• Assessment and learning must evolve: Faculty need to move beyond “defeating AI” in assessment and refocus on fostering deep, meaningful learning in an AI-rich world.
• AI literacy is the new baseline: Future students and educators must develop fluency not just in prompt engineering, but in navigating, critiquing, and leveraging AI as a co-intelligent partner.
• Institutions need an AI narrative and inventory: Every campus must define who “owns” AI, audit existing experiments, and build a unique AI story to remain relevant.
• Strategic foresight is essential: Surviving the intelligence age will require colleges to anticipate rapid technological shifts, embrace uncertainty, and lead institutional reinvention rather than trail it.