AI-Cademy 2026
Can you trust the answer?
AI is only as reliable as the data behind it. We help colleges and universities build the trusted data foundation that makes an AI answer worth acting on, so people can understand it, check it and use it with confidence.
Technology creates capability.
Trust creates confidence.
People make the decisions.
Join our session
A working conversation about whether an AI answer is ready for the provost’s desk.
Interactive session
Can You Trust the Answer? Data Foundations for AI in Higher Ed
Ask three offices how many students are in a program, and you may get three different numbers. Point an AI tool at those same systems and you’ll get a fourth, delivered with complete confidence.
This small, interactive session takes apart a familiar institutional data problem, examines a plausible AI-generated answer, and asks what we would need to know before putting that answer in front of a president or provost. Participants compare notes on how their own institutions handle definitions, evidence, time, ownership and traceability as AI moves from experimentation toward decisions.
Leave with five questions to ask of any AI-assisted answer.
Presenter
Andrew Drinkwater · President & Co-Founder, Plaid Analytics
Outside the session, you’ll find us at the Plaid Analytics table.
Start with the foundation
Governed, tested data with shared definitions, so an AI answer and a board report agree.
Know what an answer rests on
Clear sources, owners and definitions, so people can see where an answer came from.
Keep people in the decision
Let AI take on repetitive work. Keep analysis and judgment with the people accountable.
Behind every number
Institutional data has always needed interpretation. AI makes that context urgent.
Historically, an analyst carried the context with them. As AI answers institutional questions directly, that context has to become part of the data foundation underneath the answer.
- DefinitionWhich definition are we using?
- TimeAt what point in time?
- AuthorityWhich system is authoritative?
- OwnershipWho owns the number?
A little less serious
For data people of all ages.
Ask for a copy of Data Saves the Day at the Plaid Analytics table.
Find the bad data. Navigate the reporting maze. Connect a few dots. And remember that people are more than numbers.
Because even data people need something to colour between sessions.
2016–2026
Ten years of helping institutions build data capability they can use and grow.
Plaid Analytics is celebrating its 10th anniversary in 2026. Since 2016, we’ve worked with colleges and universities across Canada and the United States.
Thank you to the clients, collaborators, colleagues and sounding boards whose conversations, questions and challenges have shaped Plaid and the work we do.
We’re looking forward to what comes next.
Keep the conversation going: the HESAxPlaid Smart Data series brings higher-education leaders together on the practical foundations behind better analytics and decisions.
What would a trusted foundation for AI look like at your institution?
Maybe it starts with enrolment numbers that match across offices. Or HR data nobody quite trusts. Definitions, ownership, governance, or a reporting process that takes far too much manual effort.
You don’t need to start everywhere. Start with a problem worth solving.
Talk to us about a trusted foundation for AI
Find us at the Plaid Analytics table during AI-Cademy, or book some time to talk.