Universities are making different choices about AI. How will they fit with their public missions?

Some universities are starting to offer certificates, microcredentials or degree programs related to AI, and this isn't the same as addressing human judgment related to AI across all learning and research. (Kenn Chaplin/Flickr) , CC BY Artificial intelligence has moved quickly from being an emerging technology to one that is rapidly forcing universities to make consequential choices.

The federal government is investing heavily in university-based research in artificial intelligence , and has introduced an AI literacy strategy that includes a commitment to reaching one million entry-level post-secondary students .

Research on technological change in higher education has repeatedly demonstrated that access to technology doesn’t, on its own, transform institutions.

Digital transformation involves shifts in organizational culture, professional capability, governance, infrastructure and leadership alongside technological adoption .

All this raises larger questions: How will universities determine what it means to be ready for AI? What initiatives are universities developing related to AI? And how will this interact with universities’ missions? Read more: What are universities for? Canadian higher education is at a critical crossroads 15 different universities Together with Guy Levesque, executive director of the Hunter Hub for Entrepreneurial Thinking at the University of Calgary, I conducted a systematic scan of publicly visible artificial intelligence (AI) activity of 15 research-intensive universities in Canada between March and June 2026.

The research is yet to be peer-reviewed, and the scan is not intended to give a comprehensive picture.

It aims to provisionally and comparatively look at how and where AI initiatives are evolving.

The goal is to help think about how universities are choosing distinct models of AI integration, and to invite reflection.

The findings from our scan suggest there is no singular trajectory or path for responding to and adopting AI: rather, Canadian universities are making different choices about teaching, learning, governance, entrepreneurship and their relationships with the wider AI ecosystem, and what they want AI to do within their institutional vision and mission.

Publicly documented AI initiatives We examined the 15 university websites, and also scraped them with search terms and key words.

We identified 953 publicly documented AI initiatives from the universities in question related to teaching, student learning and AI literacy, programs and credentials, entrepreneurship, external collaboration, infrastructure, events, funding, student groups and institutional governance.