I Can't Code. I Built It Anyway: How AI Is Democratizing Technology Leadership in Higher Education

What happens when a non-developer uses AI to build a functioning client management tool in a single weekend? This session tells that story and unpacks what it means for higher education technology leaders as their campuses transform around them while facing staff shortages, budget constraints, and an AI adoption curve that feels impossibly steep. Drawing from a real-world case study published in Forbes Technology Council, this session explores how AI-assisted development is fundamentally changing who can build, who can lead, and who gets to participate in institutional technology strategy. Attendees will engage in a live exercise using AI tools to prototype a campus solution, confront the governance questions this raises (Who owns AI-generated code? Who is accountable when it breaks?), and develop a personal AI integration strategy that they can implement regardless of their technical background. This session directly addresses EDUCAUSE Top 10 issues #2 (The Human Edge of AI), #9 (AI-Enabled Efficiencies and Growth), and #7 (Technology Literacy for the Future Workforce), demonstrating that the most important AI skill may not be prompting, but may be the judgment to know when and how to use AI as a leadership amplifier.