Three quarters of staff are already using AI. Almost none of them have permission.
That is one of the headline findings in Meadow’s 2026 report, The State of AI in Student Accounts, which surveyed 147 professionals who handle tuition billing, payments, collections, and the endless stream of student questions about all three. I was one of the practitioners interviewed for the report.
What the data says
- Shadow AI is everywhere. 76% use AI for their own work, but only 14% have department endorsed tools.
- Privacy is the top worry. 78% name FERPA and data privacy as their leading concern.
- The wins are unglamorous. Drafting replies to student questions is the most common use, at 46%.
- Leadership is mostly silent. 63% report no pressure from leaders to adopt or even plan for AI.
My take
Admissions was first through the door. Generative tools came first, then more agentic processes, and once the results were visible other offices started paying attention. I expect that momentum to reach the financial side of the house. It is a slow play, but it moves in one direction.
The trust bar is higher there. But trust gets built the same way it did in admissions: through visible results that people can see and verify for themselves.
Justin May, in the report
The bigger lesson applies well beyond student accounts. When your people are already using a tool without permission, the real question is whether you will lead its adoption or let it happen to you.
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