The Tools Are Changing. Our Mission Is Not.
A few weeks ago, I watched Google's "Group project, but make it 1776" video imagining how the Founding Fathers might have collaborated if they'd had access to today's technology. One moment made me laugh out loud: King George III requesting access to edit the Declaration of Independence — and being promptly denied.
Once I stopped laughing, though, I found myself thinking about a different question.
What Happens When Important Work Gets Better Tools?
It's a question that feels especially relevant today.
Artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies are changing how people work, communicate, solve problems and learn. Every week seems to bring another breakthrough, another capability and another prediction about what higher education will look like tomorrow.
Those conversations matter, but I believe they're also incomplete. At WGU, technology has never been the mission.
Students are.
Our mission has always been to create pathways to opportunity through education. That hasn't changed. What is changing is our ability to support learners in ways we could barely imagine just a few years ago.
Technology Expands What’s Possible. People Make it Meaningful.
I was reminded of that at commencement this year when I met one of our graduates, Margarita.
Margarita had earned her master's degree, but she faced a challenge familiar to many student parents: she didn't have anyone to care for her young daughter during Saturday's commencement ceremony.
Rather than asking Margarita to choose between celebrating one of the biggest accomplishments of her life and caring for her daughter, our commencement team found another way.
On Friday, before the larger ceremony, they created a commencement experience just for her. Margarita crossed the stage, had her degree conferred, celebrated her achievement and captured the photos every graduate deserves while her daughter watched proudly from the front row, safeguarded by one of our WGU commencement ambassadors.
The next day, more than 2,000 graduates crossed the commencement stage.
But I keep thinking about Friday.
As Margarita crossed that stage, her daughter wasn't thinking about artificial intelligence, competency-based education, learning models, workflow automation or student information systems.
She was watching someone she loved accomplish something extraordinary. She was watching perseverance and possibility, building a dream of what her own future could become.
To me, that is WGU.
One by One, at Scale
Every graduate represents something deeply personal — a family changed, a child inspired, a career transformed, a community strengthened. Those are the stories that remind us why education matters.
In addition, behind every graduate are hundreds of people whose names may never be known — faculty who invested extra time, student support specialists who listened, curriculum teams who strengthened learning experiences, technology professionals who built better tools, operations teams who quietly removed barriers.
Each contribution may seem small on its own, but together, they create life-changing opportunities.
As artificial intelligence becomes increasingly integrated into higher education, it's tempting to focus our conversations on the technology itself.
I believe the more important conversation starter is how technology can help us become even more human where it matters most.
What if AI allows faculty to spend more time supporting students? Automation removes administrative friction? Better data helps us identify struggling learners sooner? Improved systems free our teams to focus on meaningful interactions? If those are the goals, then technology isn't replacing our mission; it's amplifying it.
Innovative tools aren't valuable because they're new; they matter because they help more students succeed. Education has always been about unlocking possibility. The tools we use will continue to evolve, but our responsibility remains the same: helping learners achieve goals they once thought were out of reach.
The ripple effects of that work extend far beyond the graduates we celebrate. They reach children watching from the audience, families whose futures are transformed, employers who gain skilled professionals, and communities strengthened by educated citizens.
As we begin a new fiscal year, I'm inspired not simply by the pace of technological change, but by the people across WGU who continue asking how we can use those advances to better serve learners.
The Conversation We Should Be Having
As educators, leaders, employers, and innovators, we all have a role to play in shaping how technology influences the future of learning. The question isn't whether AI will change higher education—it already is.
The question is whether we'll use it to create more opportunity, remove more barriers, strengthen more human connections and help more learners achieve what once felt impossible.
If we keep students at the center of every innovation, I believe the future of higher education is brighter than ever.
Because the tools are changing.
Our mission never will.
