Is there a north star to guide the higher education technology community through turbulent times?
Our challenges are deeply human. So, too, are our ways through them, EDUCAUSE’s Mark McCormack notes in unveiling the 2026 EDUCAUSE Top 10 list.
That’s why Top 10 list panelists and higher education leaders from across the globe told a decidedly human story when asked what they’ll focus on in the year ahead.
The theme? Making Connections.
From “The Human Edge” of AI to unlocking the full potential of data as a strategic asset, the EDUCAUSE Top 10 list serves as a guide to help higher education institutions create the connections we need to move forward, together.
Top 10 panelist and UW–Madison Chief Information Officer Didier Contis shared his insights to help create this must-read list. Topics include:
- The Human Edge of AI
Empowering students, faculty and staff to engage with artificial intelligence tools critically, creatively and safely - Measured Approaches to New Technologies
Making better technology investment decisions (or choosing not to invest) through clear cost, return on investment, and legacy systems assessments - Knowledge Management for Safer AI
Mitigating the risks of artificial intelligence by integrating knowledge management into data governance, privacy, and ethics programs - Technology Literacy for the Future Workforce
Supporting discipline-specific technology training and education to enhance student success with in-demand technology skills
The issues on the Top 10 list span a wide range of individual uses: student curriculum, administration, strategic planning, cybersecurity awareness, the interpretation of data, and many other applications. The EDUCAUSE report summarizes each of the 10 issues in detail, highlighting how technology leaders are thinking about and planning for them.
The common thread? The central role of the individual in bringing the institution’s collective will to life.
“Taken together, these issues acknowledge that the soul of the institution is expressed through each person’s voice—wild, alive with ideas, and empowered to make a difference in the world,” EDUCAUSE’s Mark McCormack writes.
The critical role of human ‘knowledge curation’
In a campus spotlight shared with the Top 10 list, Contis shares how “knowledge curation” from UW’s vast network of experts is helping to shape and validate AI outputs as chatbot development proliferates at UW–Madison.
“As we see more and more people across our campuses adopting or trying out AI technology,” Contis asks, “how do we start to have the discussion about ensuring consistency, particularly when the tool is supposed to help guide a student through a financial aid application or navigate a program’s curriculum?”
As UW–Madison continues to explore AI capabilities, new processes are being developed to engage with our subject matter practitioners and knowledge experts earlier on. The goal? To help ensure chatbot outputs are accurate and tailored to the university’s unique context.
One example: Contis described experimental efforts to develop an AI chatbot that would guide employees on policies, like sick leave or the research grant application process. To build such a chatbot, a massive amount of documentation from UW’s policy library forms the initial building blocks.
But while these experiments have provided valuable insights into making policy content more user-friendly, a fundamental issue persists: Some essential contextual information is missing from the policy documents fed into the AI.
“And this is where you start to realize the limitations,” Contis notes. “This has shown us the need to engage knowledge experts in specific policy domains to test and validate the quality of the answers.”
Explore the Top 10 list with EDUCAUSE: Dec 3 webinar
Interested in going deeper—and exploring what this year’s list tells us about where higher education is heading? In a free webinar on December 3, EDUCAUSE will share real-world examples of how issues on the Top 10 list are impacting your peers at other institutions.
Webinar details
- When: Wed, Dec 3, noon CT
- Cost: FREE for EDUCAUSE members (UW–Madison is a member)
- Register for the webinar