Like Electricity
UH has a plan for AI across ten campuses, but its success may depend less on the technology than on the people hired to build it.
President Wendy Hensel says artificial intelligence is like electricity: infrastructure that will eventually touch every part of the University of Hawaiʻi. That's the thinking behind UH's first systemwide AI strategy, presented to the Board of Regents on July 16.
The roadmap spans all ten campuses, weaving AI into teaching, research, university operations, and workforce development. It also proposes an Aloha Intelligence Institute grounded in ethical governance, Native Hawaiian values, and public benefit. An earlier version of the proposal envisioned about $4 million over two years, including funding for ten permanent positions. The strategy also calls for a systemwide AI cluster hire, a coordinated effort to recruit faculty across disciplines.
Turning that vision into reality is Gloria Niles, who became UH's chief academic technology innovation officer in March after years leading online learning across the university system. The work has already begun: AI for Hawaiʻi, a free twelve-chapter course, is available through the university's OneAI Hub, while UH Community Colleges are separately partnering with MIT to expand AI workforce training.
But strategies don't implement themselves. They become budgets, hiring decisions, and research priorities. Whether UH develops AI expertise from within Hawaiʻi, recruits it from elsewhere, or builds teams that can do both may shape the university's AI future as much as the technology itself.