Colleges and universities struggle to buy artificial intelligence tools effectively, according to new EDUCAUSE research on procurement practices. The organization surveyed higher education leaders tasked with selecting and purchasing AI systems for their institutions.
The findings reveal two core barriers. First, AI governance remains murky across campus. Institutions lack clear policies, accountability structures, and decision-making frameworks for which AI tools to adopt and how to deploy them responsibly. Second, AI technology moves faster than procurement processes. By the time institutions complete vendor evaluation and contract negotiation, new AI capabilities emerge and older systems become obsolete.
EDUCAUSE recommends that procurement professionals take two concrete steps. They should anchor all purchasing decisions to their institution's published AI strategy. This means establishing governance committees, defining acceptable use cases, and documenting risk tolerance before issuing requests for proposals. Without this roadmap, procurement teams chase vendors rather than solving institutional problems.
Second, procurement officers should prioritize vendors willing to operate transparently. This includes clear documentation of training data sources, model performance metrics, data retention policies, and audit trails. Vendors resisting transparency questions should raise red flags. The EDUCAUSE research suggests that institutions with the strongest AI procurement outcomes chose partners demonstrating commitments to explainability and compliance.
The timing matters. Higher education institutions now face pressure to integrate AI across operations, from student advising systems to administrative efficiency tools. Yet many lack formal procurement expertise specific to AI. Traditional vendor evaluation criteria, like cost per seat or implementation timeline, do not capture AI-specific risks around bias, privacy, and model reliability.
EDUCAUSE QuickPolls gather rapid feedback from higher education technology leaders on timely issues. This procurement poll adds to growing research showing that institutional readiness, not vendor innovation, determines AI implementation success. Colleges that move first without governance structures often face costly failures and staff resistance.
The message for procurement teams: slow down, build institutional AI strategy