BOURNEMOUTH UNIVERSITY Gerry explains:“ The overarching operational objective is clear: what we want is a single, confident team of people who make change happen – skilled at moving solutions forward, and working in an environment where they feel safe to take sensible risks and speak up.”
At the core of this integration is upskilling the workforce to handle automated systems.“ Helping our people become comfortable and capable with data and with AI sits at the centre of this, because that is what allows us to innovate and to work more efficiently,” he adds. The university’ s operational framework, therefore, focuses on pairing technological deployment with active professional development, rather than forcing sudden adjustments onto the workforce.
In practice, this means that Gerry and his team focus on investing in people’ s skills while simultaneously ensuring the university completes its goals, so staff feel confident adopting new ways of working rather than“ having change done to them”.
“ A good example is our recent partnership with ICS. AI, who are helping us find our way with AI,” Gerry shares.“ We are starting by taking an honest look at where AI can help us, while introducing it in a safe, well-governed way. The aim is to protect and improve the service we offer, enable our staff to work in more productive ways and build firm foundations for using AI more widely. We will then bring these tools to colleagues across professional and academic support roles to help with everyday work.”
76 August 2026