Colleges and universities face mounting obstacles when buying artificial intelligence tools, according to new research from EDUCAUSE. The organization's QuickPoll results highlight procurement challenges tied to unclear AI governance structures and the speed at which AI technology evolves.
Procurement officers report difficulty aligning vendor contracts with institutional AI policies that either don't exist or remain incomplete. Many schools lack formal frameworks for evaluating, purchasing, and managing AI systems across their operations. This creates gaps between what campuses need and what vendors offer.
The rapid evolution of AI technology compounds the problem. Features, capabilities, and risks change faster than institutional buying processes can accommodate. Procurement teams struggle to write specifications for tools that improve or shift during contract negotiations.
EDUCAUSE recommends two concrete steps. First, procurement professionals should ground their purchasing decisions in each institution's broader AI strategy. Schools without comprehensive AI strategies face greater obstacles in making coherent purchasing decisions across departments. Second, procurement teams should prioritize working with vendors who demonstrate transparency about their systems' limitations, data practices, and risk profiles.
The findings reflect broader tensions in higher education AI adoption. Many campuses rushed to integrate ChatGPT and similar tools without formal governance structures. Now, as institutions attempt to scale AI use and purchase specialized platforms, procurement processes expose the lack of preparatory planning.
Procurement professionals who succeed in this environment do more than manage purchase orders. They function as strategic partners who help align vendor capabilities with institutional values and policies. This requires technical fluency, governance awareness, and the ability to push back on vendor claims when institutional interests demand it.
The EDUCAUSE results suggest that higher education institutions need to build AI governance frameworks before launching broad procurement initiatives. Schools that establish clear AI policies, identify appropriate use cases, and define acceptable vendor practices will navigate purchases more effectively than those treating procurement as a reactive, transaction-based function.