As artificial intelligence continues to disrupt college campuses, chief academic officers are embracing AI tools. Roughly seven in 10 provosts use AI in their own day-to-day work at least once per week, according to _Inside Higher Ed_’s latest survey of CAOs—but only one in 10 reported their institution has a centralized AI strategy. _Inside Higher Ed_’s annual Survey of College and University Chief Academic Officers was conducted with Hanover Research. The survey included 376 provosts from mostly public and private nonprofit institutions for a margin of error of 4.7 percentage points.
A copy of the free report can be downloaded here. On Wednesday, Oct. 21, at 2 p.m. Eastern, _Inside Higher Ed_ will present a free webcast with expert panelists to discuss the survey findings and more about academic leadership in today’s changing postsecondary landscape.
Register for that conversation here, even if you can’t attend live. This independent editorial survey was made possible by support from Honorlock and Watermark. Provosts report that AI has most delivered value to their institution in the form of individual productivity gains (39 percent said this) and administrative efficiency (36 percent), which is reflected in how they most often use the technology.
Seventy-one percent of provosts use AI to summarize documents and reports, 66 percent for presentations and meetings, and 65 percent to draft communications to faculty, staff or students. One survey respondent noted they receive more than 100 emails per day and use AI to “identify high-priority action items” in their inbox. Others said they use AI to help source data from other institutions, for calendar analysis, grant development and organizing higher ed news. _Inside Higher Ed_’s 2026 Survey of College and University Chief Academic Officers, released today, includes responses from 376 CAOs at mostly public and private nonprofit, two- and four-year institutions who were polled in July and August.
In addition to taking their pulse on AI, _Inside Higher Ed_ and Hanover Research asked provosts about the rapidly changing federal and state policy landscape; tenure, shared governance and academic freedom; faculty and staff retention; and academic program health and institutional effectiveness, among other topics. > Most of the presidents I know would either publicly agree or confidentially agree, the provost has the hardest job in higher ed.” > —Paul LeBlanc, former university president and author of _Reclaiming Purpose: The University in an AI World_ Paul LeBlanc, former president of Southern New Hampshire University and author of the new book _Reclaiming Purpose: The University in an AI World_, said he was not surprised to see that so many provosts now utilize AI tools in their own work. Indeed, fewer than half of CAOs—47 percent—said they have adequate resources to implement initiatives in their role. This discrepancy is in part due to the way people most often use AI, LeBlanc said.
Thirty-one percent of public doctoral provosts agreed with this, while only 11 percent of private nonprofit baccalaureate provosts and 12 percent of community college provosts did. Asked about current AI uses, 54 percent of CAOs said their institution uses virtual AI assistants and chatbots. Up from 50 percent last year, this remains the top institutional use.
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