12 Ways to Dive into AI at SXSW EDU This March 9-12, the SXSW EDU Conference & Festival returns to Austin, TX, to celebrate development, experimentation, and discovering throughout every phase of education. Attendees will take on education’s crucial problems and patterns through a wide range of sessions, workshops, hands-on experiences, and more. 
Sessions focused on expert system in college have proliferated on the SXSW EDU program this year, providing multifaceted ways to engage with the subject. Here are 12 of our top choices.
< img height="368" alt="A panel discussion from SXSW EDU 2025" width="644" src="https://campustechnology.com/-/media/EDU/CampusTechnology/2026/02/20260211sxswedu.jpg"/ > A panel discussion from SXSW EDU 2025 (Image: Daniel Poe)
1) Neighborhood Colleges & AI Success for Students & Communities
California Neighborhood Colleges Chancellor Sonya Christian will share how her institution is preparing students for AI-powered professions through industry collaborations, faculty partnership and AI curriculum customized to genuine labor force needs.
2) Mentor on the Frontier: Skills for the AI Period
The next generation of learners won’t simply use AI– they’ll lead with it, states Rachel Wortman Morris, director of Microsoft’s NextGen Learning Laboratory. Wortman Morris will offer strategies for gearing up students with necessary abilities such as critical thinking, effective prompting, and partnership with AI representatives.
3) Experiencing Learning: Hedging Against AI Disruption
Panelists from London Business School, MIT Sloan School of Management, Carnegie Mellon University, and Symplicity will talk about how AI can augment experiential learning and assistance develop the distinctively human skillsets needed for the future of work.
4) Institutional AI Adoption: Moving from Hype to Practice
In this workshop, professionals from the Knowing Design Alliance, WGU Labs, and Axio AI will explore the challenges and methods of integrating AI into existing organizational ecosystems.
5) Making AI Work for Higher Ed: A Management Discussion
Panelists from the Gates Structure, Every Learner All Over, and T3 Advisory will discuss what accountable AI implementation looks like in practice.