In 2026, the post-secondary landscape is diverging. On one side, institutions are struggling with "legacy lock-in" (outdated systems that can't talk to AI); on the other, schools are leveraging Agentic AI  to automate the entire student lifecycle. RIO Education  represents the "Best of Both Worlds" bridge—a full-strength SIS that lives natively on the Salesforce platform, allowing you to rapidly leverage your investment in Agentforce. 1. RIO Education: A production ready Stud

Everyone is talking about AI at conferences, but putting it to work inside a university system is a different story. Recently, we integrated OpenAI and Google Gemini into RIO Education  to help with things like scoring applications and summarizing student progress. We didn’t just learn about "tech"—we learned how AI actually fits into campus life. Here are our top five takeaways. 1. AI is a Tool, Not the Boss In higher education, "full automation" is a big risk. We learned th

In the higher education boardroom, the conversation has shifted. It’s no longer "Should we use AI?" but rather, "How do we experiment with AI without breaking our core operations?" This is the classic tension: Experimentation vs. Formal Planning. For years, these two forces were at odds. Experimentation was fast and siloed; formal planning was slow and often obsolete by the time it was implemented. But in 2026, a new model is emerging—defined by a "Stable Core" that empowers