Why This Book? Why Right Now?

by Claire L. Brady EdD

There's a moment in every institutional AI conversation I've been part of — and I've been in hundreds of them now — where someone around the table finally says the quiet part out loud: "I don't actually know what we're supposed to be doing here."

A president. A VPSA. A dean. A director. Someone who is, by every measure, a highly competent leader in their institution. And they’re trying to make decisions about a technology evolving faster than the structures designed to govern it.

That moment is why I wrote AI with Intention: The Leadership Guide for Higher Education.

Not because I think higher ed leaders are behind. But because the framing we've been handed — adopt, or be left behind; resist, or lose relevance — is a false choice that isn't serving anyone well. The real question has never been whether to use AI. It's whether we'll shape that transformation with intention, or let it shape us by default. Right now, most institutions are doing a little of both.

When ChatGPT launched in late 2022, I watched institutions respond in predictable ways: some racing to embrace every new possibility, others fighting to preserve academic integrity, and most people caught somewhere between excitement and existential dread. What I didn't see much of was the conversation I believed mattered most: What do we actually value here, and how do we make sure AI serves that?

Here's what I've learned from three years of working alongside institutions navigating this:

The colleges and universities making meaningful progress aren't necessarily the ones with the biggest budgets or the most advanced technical infrastructure. They're the ones who understood, early on, that AI adoption is fundamentally a human challenge. It requires culture work. Trust-building. Honest conversations about values and trade-offs. It requires slowing down just enough to make better decisions.

That's a different book than the ones already on the shelf. Most AI books are written for technologists, or they're breathless arguments for why you need to move faster. I wanted to write something different — a field guide for leaders who are navigating AI adoption with real students, real constraints, and real pressure to "do something" even when the path forward isn't clear.

Higher education is not a generic sector. We operate with complex governing boards and shared governance. We serve students who are disproportionately first-generation and navigating systems that weren't built with them in mind. Our mission is not efficiency — it's transformation. That context changes everything about how AI should be implemented, evaluated, and governed.

AI with Intention starts with culture, not code. It starts with curiosity, not certainty. And it starts with the belief that every decision you make about AI is a referendum on your values — and that you, the leader who knows your students, your culture, and your mission better than any vendor ever will, are the right person to make those decisions.

This is the book I wish I had in every one of those rooms.

AI with Intention: The Leadership Guide for Higher Education is available now.