OVERVIEW

Artificial intelligence (AI) is a powerful and innovative technology with high potential impact. AI also poses ethical, legal and social implications that the University needs to anticipate and address, ensuring that AI is used in a responsible and beneficial way. Establishing an AI Center of Excellence (CoE) is necessary to create a foundation to deliver high-quality AI services, set guardrails and define best practices across the UH community. The leading AI service is an AI-based chatbot. Chatbots help build the kinds of relationships that are critical in driving retention, reducing summer melt and improving graduation rates at universities that implement them effectively.

CURRENT STATE

• Ocelot, an AI chatbot, is being used on campus, but only sparsely.
• The Office of the Provost held a conference in Spring 2024 regarding the use of AI in academics and research.
• Proliferation of AI generative assistants is growing on campus — Copilot, ChatGPT, Otter AI and others — but many in our community do not know the best way to incorporate them into the workplace.

PATH TO SUCCESS

The AI Center of Excellence will promote AI literacy, consult, facilitate, collaborate, lead in the development of policies and best practices, and provision AI technologies “as a service” to the broader organization. In this way, the COE will enable units to deliver value through the use of Artificial Intelligence to four targeted constituency groups: students, faculty, staff, and research departments.

This effort will:

• Enable the organization to drive AI-powered innovation for conversational and digital assistant capabilities.
• Promote conversational AI adoption across the organization, while also mitigating risk.
• Help clients to integrate conversational AI into their services and processes.
• Transform AI into a business value driver by identifying, prototyping and delivering AI capabilities that are expected to produce measurable results.
• Accelerate speed to value of AI to the organization.
• Communicate the value of AI and the AI CoE’s role to the rest of the organization.

FY2025 INITIATIVES

• Create an IT AI Center of Excellence led by the AI Solutions Manager to help deliver services through the new AI chatbot.
• Deploy AI-based chatbot pilot within Enrollment Services and then to all departments and colleges.
• Create an AI acceptable use policy that complies with Texas House Bill 2060.
• Document best practices for administrative use of AI generative assistants.