From the Kuali Days 2025 Convention: A CEO’s View of Planning for AI
A Dialog with Joel Dehlin
How can an organization serving greater schooling navigate the modifications AI brings to the ed tech market? What’s going to clients count on on this dynamic? Right here, CT talks with Kuali CEO Joel Dehlin, who shared his firm’s AI methods in a featured plenary session, “Sneak Peek of AI in Kuali Construct,” at Kuali Days 2025 in Anaheim.
Joel Dehlin opening Kuali Days 2025 in Anaheim (Photograph courtesy Kuali. With permission.)
Mary Grush: How did you first begin desirous about AI and what it may imply in your firm and finally for the Kuali product suite?
Joel Dehlin: AI has been round for many years, however it did not actually catch my consideration till late 2022, once I stumbled throughout one thing on-line referred to as the Church of the Whale. It was clearly satire — a full-blown “faith” with scripture, hymns, and intelligent design. What made it outstanding, although, was that it had been fully created by AI. That was my first actual introduction to ChatGPT.
Since then, I have been exploring AI instruments virtually day by day — generally for work, generally to be taught, and generally simply out of curiosity. What amazed me most at first was simply how highly effective these instruments are. The velocity, the fluency, the surprising creativity — AI appears like one thing essentially totally different from any tech wave we have seen earlier than.
AI appears like one thing essentially totally different from any tech wave we have seen earlier than.
And what’s been simply as shocking is how slowly actual engagement with AI has unfold. Even now, years later, many individuals nonetheless have not absolutely grasped how a lot AI will reshape the best way we work, be taught, and lead.
Grush: How did you start to consider the affect AI may have on Kuali?
Dehlin: As soon as I spotted how highly effective these instruments are, it grew to become clear we could not simply wait round. We wanted to grasp what AI means — not only for our personal firm, however for the universities and universities we serve.
We wanted to grasp what AI means — not only for our personal firm, however for the universities and universities we serve.
Our clients face monumental complexity. They’re juggling laws, legacy programs, siloed information — and infrequently doing so with restricted sources. AI has the potential to cut back friction throughout all of that. However provided that it is applied with care, belief, and a deep understanding of how greater ed really works.
That realization pushed us to rethink not simply our roadmap, however the best way we construct merchandise — with AI on the core, not simply bolted on. It grew to become about serving to folks work smarter, not merely quicker.
That realization pushed us to rethink not simply our roadmap, however the best way we construct merchandise — with AI on the core, not simply bolted on.
Grush: As a CEO, what steps have you ever taken to assist your organization adapt to the modifications AI is bringing?
Dehlin: Recognizing that it is nonetheless comparatively early within the human/AI “relationship” — and that the widespread understanding of AI is usually totally different from the truth — I needed to create a purposeful studying expertise inside our firm. We wanted folks not simply to concentrate on AI, however to begin utilizing it. Actively. Deliberately.
I needed to create a purposeful studying expertise inside our firm. We wanted folks not simply to concentrate on AI, however to begin utilizing it.
We have made it a management precedence to assist our groups construct actual fluency with AI — not simply to dabble. Meaning offering coaching, carving out time for experimentation, and inspiring folks to be taught from one another. We additionally made the decision early on to provide everybody entry to the most effective instruments — not simply the free ones — as a result of that have actually issues.
