Universities risk increasing bureaucracy by introducing AI to their administrative systems.

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Universities are at a critical point as students and faculty embrace the use of AI. Already, universities like Harvard are introducing courses that feature an AI avatar as an "instructor ."

The promises AI offers higher education are familiar: an increase in efficiency as a consequence of less administration, more teaching coverage, better feedback and smarter assessment. But introducing artificial intelligence (AI) systems in an attempt to fix these problems is not the answer. If anything, AI systems will magnify and speed up the bureaucracy that is driving universities' decline.

Akhil Bhardwaj is an Associate Professor of Strategy and Organization at the University of Bath, UK. He studies extreme events, which range from organizational disasters to radical innovation.…