This post is the second in a five-part series on Collaborative Intelligence: Transformation of Planning and the Roles of Planners in Higher Education. The series explores the opportunity to collaborate with Generative AI to build new resources, transform planning dynamics, enhance outcomes, redefine roles, and reshape organizational culture. These five topics describe the significant changes that will come from the deployment and leveraging of CI.
Collaborative Intelligence: The Future of Higher Education.
This installment (#2 of 5) focuses on leveraging (CI) to transform the planning process—making it faster, future-focused, continuous, and more engaging for participants and changing its dynamics and nature.
Changing the Dynamics and Character of Planning
Today’s leaders, planners, and decision-makers must recognize the potential of CI to tackle the challenges facing higher education. Regardless of job titles, CI-enabled planning and decision-making will become available to every participant in the rapidly changing landscape of higher education. Virtualized environments and advanced tools will embed CI practices into all processes, fundamentally changing planning and decision-making dynamics, nature, and outcomes.
The figure below highlights four primary ways we believe that CI will transform planning processes and the dynamics and character of planning:
CI Transforms the Dynamics of Planning and Decision Making
CI Transforms the Dynamics of Planning
Forward-thinking institutions are already leveraging integrated, virtualized planning environments that combine collaborative platforms (e.g., Zoom), creative tools (e.g., Miro), and advanced AI technologies and large language models (LLMs). By 2030, more sophisticated iterations of these systems will revolutionize planning processes.
Virtualize the Planning Experience; Embed AI Tools
Investments in virtualized environments with embedded AI are necessary to transform planning. These technologies allow for broader and deeper engagement of leaders, faculty, staff, and external stakeholders. Immersive virtual experiences enhanced by AI and autonomous agents enable more inclusive, efficient, and creative planning.
Engage More Participants; Democratize Planning
Virtualized environments make it possible to involve hundreds of internal and external participants simultaneously. This democratizes planning by integrating collective intelligence into all discussions about foresight, strategy, and execution. The result is accelerated planning cycles, broader buy-in to innovation and transformative change, and cascading inputs of fresh ideas. Expanded participation allows stakeholders to:
Continuously explore future opportunities.
Collaboratively craft and refine strategies.
Actively participate in decision-making.
Adapt plans dynamically in response to changing conditions.
Undertake innovations and creative solutions not possible today.
Integrate AI Bots and Agents into Every Conversation
GenAI bots and supervised automated agents will be essential participants in planning discussions. They will shape strategies, provide real-time insights, and continuously update foresight models and decisions based on evolving data. Agents will interact with humans through back-and-forth dialogue but can also act independently and manage ongoing processes. They will be critical to more innovative problem-solving and decision-making practices.
Create Adaptive Planning Practices with Future Focus, Scenarios, and Foresight
Adaptive planning empowers institutions to navigate turbulent environments effectively. This requires continuous, CI-enabled adaptation and resilience in the face of continuous chance. CI will enable real-time adjustments to strategies and plans, ensuring institutions remain agile and innovative in the face of change. This will craft predictive foresight in the next five years and beyond, determining new, necessary skill sets for these turbulent times.
Looking Ahead
By 2030, CI and GenAI will profoundly reshape planning dynamics, outcomes, and the role of planners. Early adopters in higher education will lead this transformation, with others following suit over time. Planning will become adaptive, innovative, and scalable, characterized by:
Continuously iterating foresight, scenario planning, and decision-making, resulting in predictive foresight.
Vast data resources and insights support virtualized processes.
Broader stakeholder engagement through virtual platforms.
Accelerated implementation and refinement of strategies.
Developing better skills in resilience and adaptation.
As planning evolves, a cultural shift toward collective intelligence and adaptive strategies will be required to thrive in an era of rapid change and complexity.
Full Blog Series:
Blog 4: Coming January 2025
Blog 5: Coming February 2025
Additional Resources:
Roger Martin, “Strategy and Artificial Intelligence: A Story of Heuristics, Means, and Tails,” 20024.
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