Tag Archives: AI

AI Platforms, Products, and Features

AI, Thoughts, ,

Bear with me, I am going to just do some outloud thinking. I want to make sure I get my thoughts down on leveling the vocabulary around the AI explosions happening around us. What are the differences between AI platforms, AI products, and AI features and why each has a critical role in our strategy.

I believe in an enterprise as large and diverse as ours, an AI platform will provide the foundation. In my mind, platforms are flexible, scalable, and built for creating custom solutions. They give us the ability to develop, integrate, and innovate on top of a common framework. I believe that investing in a campus-wide AI platform that serves as the bedrock for much of what we’re doing across research, teaching, and operations is the right thing to do. It’s the engine that drives AI innovation and allows the community to participate at scale to create solutions tailored to unique needs.

Visual representation of the UT.AI platform.

Then there are AI products like M365 Copilot. Copilot enhances collaboration, improves workflow, and helps us get more out of the underlying Microsoft 365 platform we’ve already embraced. An AI product is standalone, one that fits into a larger AI strategy. It exists above or adjacent to our platform, enhancing daily operations while complementing the custom AI solutions we’re building.

Finally, there are AI features like Apple Intelligence, which come baked into devices like your iPhone. These are the quiet, background AI capabilities that make your user experience more intuitive and personalized. But by themselves, they’re limited in scope—enhancing specific tasks rather than transforming entire workflows.

The strategy that I am envisioning begins with a platform approach. It gives us the power to drive true innovation and adoption by the community. Providing a common platform does not preclude us from also investing in AI products like M365 Copilot, bringing in vertical solutions that can serve parts of the university. The platform is our foundation for building and adapting AI to meet the diverse needs of our students, faculty, and staff. By leveraging one platform at this level, it allows us the greatest chance to innovate, grow our internal expertise, and control our long-term success.

Advancing the AI Revolution: What’s Next?

AI, Thoughts,

For the last several years, I have tried not to be in the business of chasing trends. My early days leading ed tech organizations, I was always looking to adopt the next digital promise — the use of the internet, the new world that Web 2.0 gave us, mobility, tablets, blah. I’ve done a lot of thinking about the impact of all that evangelism and much of it isn’t immediately measurable. Disruptive technology is often an investment in future returns, but it requires playing a longer game. With AI, I’m not sure if that holds true — the returns may be much more immediate.

To me, that nudges me toward thinking more about the diffusion of AI to as diverse of a population as possible across campus. In today’s world, I can’t think of another digital investment one could make to immediately advance human potential holistically. Can you?

Three principles emerge in my mind: shrinking the digital divide, scaling AI expertise, and building strategic partnerships that fuel innovation.

  1. Shrinking the Digital Divide: AI has the potential to change everything, but only if we make it accessible. Providing AI tools to all members of the community will foster creativity at scale, from every possible perspective.
  2. Scaling AI Expertise: We are a community that’s engaged, curious, and ready to make change. Our advantage is that community. We should be scaling the expertise that’s already here and providing thought leadership across campus.
  3. Building Strategic AI Partnerships: I know that what we plan to do will require partnerships and that is how I am approaching these opportunities. I believe as the ways that we operate will only improve by leveraging this moment to modernize operations and infrastructure.

Here we are back to the start of something new. We get to build it from the ground up. That’s pretty exciting.