2026 EDUCAUSE Top 10: Making Connections

https://er.educause.edu/articles/2025/10/2026-educause-top-10-making-connections

“2026 EDUCAUSE Top 10

• #1. Collaborative Cybersecurity: Building a cybersecurity culture of shared responsibility, end-user awareness and training, and improved access to security services and supports
• #2. The Human Edge of AI: Empowering students, faculty, and staff to engage with artificial intelligence tools critically, creatively, and safely
• #3. Data Analytics for Operational and Financial Insights: Leveraging data analytics to provide insights into spending patterns, enrollment trends, and areas for cost savings and operational efficiencies
• #4. Building a Data-Centric Culture Across the Institution: Expanding and improving data access and unlocking the full potential of data as a strategic asset
• #5. Knowledge Management for Safer AI: Mitigating the risks of artificial intelligence by integrating knowledge management into data governance, privacy, and ethics programs
• #6. Measured Approaches to New Technologies: Making better technology investment decisions (or choosing not to invest) through clear cost, ROI, and legacy systems assessments
• #7. Technology Literacy for the Future Workforce: Supporting discipline-specific technology training and education to enhance student success with in-demand technology skills
• #8. From Reactive to Proactive: Using data for scenario modeling, forecasting, and prediction to strengthen institutional agility and planning
• #9. AI-Enabled Efficiencies and Growth: Using artificial intelligence, robotic process automation, and other analytics capabilities to reduce operational costs, streamline processes, and improve strategic and business decision-making
• #10. Decision-Maker Data Skills and Literacy: Enhancing the value of institutional data by training and equipping decision-makers to use and interpret it properly”