Shaping the Future of AI in Higher Education
How exactly does one build an AI university? At the second annual AI2 Summit, university leaders, faculty, researchers and experts from across the globe arrive eager to discover just that.
“The AI2 Summit offers an excellent chance to learn from UF and other universities about how to best incorporate AI into education,” said Hans van Oostrom, director of the UF Artificial Intelligence Academic Initiative Center.
Hosted by the AI2 Center, this conference takes place in Orlando from March 29 through April 1, 2026 and focuses on many aspects of strategically integrating AI across higher education institutions. Keynote addresses and hands-on workshops take attendees through AI classroom applications, utilization in university operations, and technical innovations for use in higher education.
Experts from the AI and computing industry will lead sessions and panels, divided into conference learning tracks include “Building an AI University”, “AI in Teaching and Learning”, “AI Infrastructure and Innovation”, and “Student Pathways and Workforce Readiness”.
Conference presenters hail from a variety of institutions and will share their experiences, including a keynote address by Dr. Talitha Washington, executive director for Howard University’s Center for Applied Data Science and Analytics.
This year’s Summit kicks off with a welcome by UF Interim President Donald Landry, followed by a fire-side chat between NVIDIA cofounder Chris Malachowsky and UF Interim Provost Joe Glover.
“We are a land grant university, and one of our values is to take what we learned and do out into the community and help others,” said Dr. Glover. “And so this Summit really represents another step of that program where UF is trying to encourage other universities and enable other universities that may not have dipped their toe in the AI waters just yet to become engaged with that, to deepen their knowledge and their practice, and, quite frankly, to leverage some of what we've done. We're happy to share.”
UF was the first university in the country to integrate AI across its entire curriculum in 2020 and continues to model institutional transformation through AI with white papers, campus visits, and events such as the Summit. Last year’s conference brought together 450 participants from 40 states and six countries.
Find more information about the AI2 Summit and register at https://pwd.aa.ufl.edu/ai2-summit/.