Abstract
As AI accelerates change across industries, universities face a compounding challenge: skill and job requirements are shifting faster than student choices and curriculum can follow. This session draws on labour market data from Lightcast across select western and Asia-Pacific economies to reveal how AI is reshaping industry demand, and how closely student interest and program design are keeping pace. Drawing on the second edition of University as a Connector, the session weaves together integrated data – global student demand (Studyportals), enrolment patterns, and workforce signals (Lightcast) – with a spotlight on how AI adoption in key western and Asian industries is creating new skill imperatives. Practitioner perspectives bring these findings to life: how universities are redesigning programs to be technology-focused and industry-embedded in response to AI disruption, and what students and agents are actually telling universities about how AI is shaping course choices, discipline demand, and study decisions. Together, the data and voices from the field offer a rich, multi-layered picture of where the gaps are, and where the opportunities lie. Framed within the conference theme, this session argues that in an AI-enabled future, relevance is not just technical, it is human. Data must drive program design, and universities that act as true connectors between industry need and student opportunity will be best placed to serve their communities.Learning objectives
- Understand how AI adoption is reshaping skill and job demand across key industries, drawing on Lightcast labour market data
- Identify where misalignment between student demand and workforce need is emerging, and how this differs by discipline and region
- Explore how one Asia-Pacific university has redesigned programs to be technology-focused, industry-embedded, and responsive to AI disruption
- Hear directly from a recruitment expert about how AI is influencing student and agent conversations, course selection, and discipline demand
- Learn how data can be used more strategically to design agile, future-ready programs
- Apply a connector framework to align program development, industry partnerships, and student recruitment