Recorded live at the 2026 ASU+GSV Summit in San Diego, this session featured Portia Pratt, Senior Policy Analyst at National Governors Association; Lee Lambert, Chancellor and CEO at Foothill-De Anza Community College District; Kristin Hultquist, Past Chair at MSU Denver Board of Trustees; and Alison Griffin, Principal Consultant at FutureRise.

The speakers explored how Workforce Pell is opening federal funding to short-term, non-degree programs, shifting the national conversation from access to accountability as policymakers and institutions face mounting implementation demands. They discussed how, with the public comment period recently closed and the final rule still pending, policymakers, governors, and institutions are racing to build the approval processes, accountability systems, and data infrastructure required to support this new era.

The session examined where implementation currently stands, what remains unsettled, and what states, employers, and institutions must do now to prepare for Workforce Pell’s launch. Through this conversation, the panel highlighted the regulatory urgency, operational complexity, and infrastructure development necessary to ensure short-term credential pathways can scale effectively while meeting evolving accountability standards.

Recorded live at the 2026 ASU+GSV Summit in San Diego, this session featured Destin Mizelle, Roadtripper at Roadtrip Nation; Enoch Ellis, Roadtripper at Roadtrip Nation; Tobias Brown, Roadtripper at Roadtrip Nation; and Jasmine Haywood, Strategy Director at Lumina Foundation.

Inspired by Roadtrip Nation’s documentary Thriving: Black Men in Higher Education, the speakers explored the relationships and supports that help Black men thrive across college, career, and community. Through honest conversation and lived experience, they discussed the role of friendship and mentorship in building belonging, resilience, and long-term success.

The session examined what it takes to move from support systems to opportunity systems, highlighting practical ways higher education leaders and industry partners can strengthen networks, expand pathways into entrepreneurship and innovation, and ensure the next generation of Black men has access not only to education, but also to the connections that sustain representation, mobility, and enduring success.

Recorded live at the 2026 ASU+GSV Summit in San Diego, this session featured Hugh Yao, CEO at LingoAce Academy Inc; Max Azarov, CEO at Novakid; Karine Allouche, General Manager, Language Learning Worldwide and Skills GTM Europe at Chegg; and Alina von Davier, Chief of Assessment at Duolingo.

The speakers explored how language learning apps did not simply add AI, but instead rebuilt around it earlier than almost anyone else in education. They discussed how these companies were already building AI-native experiences—including conversational practice, real-time feedback, deep personalization, and continuous engagement—before much of the broader education industry had fully understood what AI-native education could become.

The session examined how language learning companies became the field’s native speakers, fluent in capabilities that many others are still learning to use, while also confronting the hard lessons that come with that fluency. The panel explored how the category previews where every AI-native education company may be headed: explosive growth, intensifying competition, and the challenge of building sustainable businesses when AI commoditizes core features overnight. Through this conversation, the speakers unpacked what language learning’s breakthroughs and market battles reveal about building durable AI-native education companies in an era of rapid technological change.

Recorded live at the 2026 ASU+GSV Summit in San Diego, this session featured Justin Wenig, Founder & CEO at Starbridge.ai; Diana Heldfond DiGia, CEO and Founder at Parallel Learning; Vinay Bhaskara, Co-founder at CollegeVine; and Erik Edwards, Partner at Cooley LLP.

The speakers explored how securing a strong Series A+ round is only the beginning for AI-first EdTech companies, as the real challenge lies in successfully scaling within today’s rapidly evolving market. They discussed what has been resonating most with both customers and investors as category leaders work to solidify their market positions.

The session examined how founders are proving unit economics, deepening customer retention, building durable competitive advantages, and staying ahead in an increasingly competitive AI landscape. Through this conversation, the panel unpacked what it takes not only to raise capital, but also to scale effectively and sustainably as AI-first companies navigate their next stage of growth.

Recorded live at the 2026 ASU+GSV Summit in San Diego, this session featured Fernando Bleichmar, CEO at Risepoint; Chris Lynne, President at University of Phoenix; Jeffrey Conlon, Chief Executive Officer at Unitek Learning Education Group, LLC; Elizabeth Chou, Partner at Leeds Illuminate; and Adnan Nisar, Senior Partner and Co-Head of Knowledge and Learning Solutions at The Vistria Group.

The speakers explored how the greatest needs in education often exist within the most regulated spaces, where structural barriers can leave major opportunities for impact frustratingly out of reach for private investors. They discussed how federal funding restrictions on non-degree programs, evolving compliance requirements, and broader regulatory complexity have historically pushed private capital away from education and economic mobility sectors.

The session examined how investors and operators are finding ways to break through these barriers through innovative delivery models in underserved communities, technology platforms bridging education and employment, and strategic approaches to navigating policy constraints. Through this conversation, the panel unpacked not only where private capital can invest in education, but also how to navigate regulatory complexity while creating meaningful pathways to opportunity and long-term impact.

Recorded live at the 2026 ASU+GSV Summit in San Diego, this session featured Jaime Casap, Co-Founder at Purpose Lab; Alisa Sommer O’Hara, Global Head of Learning & Education Partnerships at Google; Tom Sayer, CEO and Co-Founder at Ello; and Dan Carroll, Co-founder and Advisor at Clever.

The speakers explored how frontier AI labs including Google, OpenAI, Anthropic, and Microsoft have been rapidly expanding their education product ecosystems—embedding AI into learning platforms, building education workflows, and making tools increasingly free, bundled, and ubiquitous. They examined how these shifts are placing pressure on traditional EdTech business models while simultaneously creating new opportunities for startups.

The session discussed where EdTech companies can still carve out durable positions as platform giants double down on education, and how startups can leverage frontier labs not only as competitors but also as enablers that allow them to build faster and smarter. Through this conversation, the panel unpacked where founders should focus, which business models are under the most pressure, and how to build, partner, and scale successfully in an era increasingly shaped by AI platform giants.

Recorded live at the 2026 ASU+GSV Summit in San Diego, this session featured Ron Levin, Managing Partner at Alumni Ventures; Carole Ackermann, Chairwoman of the Board and President of EHL Board of Trustees at EHL Hospitality Business School; Ariel Hersh, Investment Director at SEEK Investments; and Nana Kyei, Managing Director at Houlihan Lokey.

The speakers explored how the capital backing EdTech is changing rapidly as traditional venture models evolve and a new generation of investors emerges. They discussed how operators-turned-investors, family offices, evergreen funds, strategics, philanthropies, and hybrid capital players are reshaping the landscape with different time horizons, incentives, and definitions of success.

The session examined how the EdTech capital stack is being rebuilt, who these new investors are, and what they are seeking that others may overlook. From patient capital and platform plays to impact-driven returns and operational alignment, the panel unpacked how this shift is transforming company-building and what founders need to understand to raise capital, build partnerships, and scale successfully in the next era of EdTech.

Recorded live at the 2026 ASU+GSV Summit in San Diego, this session featured Ronit Levani Morad, Senior Director & Chief of Staff for Google Research at Google; Lydia Logan, Vice President for Global Education and Workforce Development at IBM Corporate Social Responsibility; Dan Schneider, Enterprise Platform Product Specialist at NVIDIA; Matthew Rascoff, Vice Provost at Stanford University; and Bridget Burns, CEO at University Innovation Alliance.

The speakers explored how AI is compressing the time between question and discovery, reshaping not only how research is conducted, but also who is prepared to participate in AI-enabled innovation. They examined how research is evolving, how researchers and students are being trained, and how universities and institutions must adapt as much of the traditional bench work can now be executed by algorithms.

The session discussed the new mandate facing institutions: attracting and developing AI-fluent talent across disciplines, equipping students with the skills to operate within agentic and AI-enabled workflows, and ensuring that breakthrough research moves efficiently from lab to real-world application. The panel also explored how the architecture of science is changing, how the distinction between builders and users is blurring, and how curricula, incentives, and talent pipelines must evolve to produce a workforce capable not only of generating knowledge, but of applying it responsibly while translating it into economic opportunity, workforce mobility, and broader societal impact.

Recorded live at the 2026 ASU+GSV Summit in San Diego, this session featured Steve Shapiro, Founder and AI Advisor at FinetuneAI and Prometric; Drew Bent, Education Lead at Anthropic; Nate Ober, Generative AI Strategist at Amazon; Raman Malik, VP of Product at Perplexity; and Narine Hall, Leading AI Product Strategy at Instructure.

The speakers explored how autonomous AI agents have come to dominate the narrative around the next phase of automation, while real-world deployments have revealed a far more mixed story. They discussed how teams running agentic systems in production have encountered fragile reasoning chains, shallow contextual grounding, and rapidly escalating compute costs as these systems scale.

The session distinguished hype from reality by examining where AI agents are delivering durable value, where they are breaking down, and which design choices are determining the difference. Through this conversation, the panel provided practical insight into the current state of agentic systems and what truly matters as organizations move from experimentation to implementation.

Recorded live at the 2026 ASU+GSV Summit in San Diego, this session featured Pat Yongpradit, General Manager, Global Education and Workforce Policy at Microsoft; Miriam Vogel, President & CEO at EqualAI; Kim Majerus, Vice President, Worldwide Public Sector Global Education and U.S. State & Local Government at Amazon AWS; Larz May, Founder and Executive Director at #HalfTheStory and Co-founder & CEO at Ginko; Paul Gollash, SVP, Global Mobility Solutions at ETS; and Daphne Li, CEO at Common Sense Privacy.

The speakers explored how trust has become the defining barrier to meaningful AI adoption in education. They discussed how the sector remains early in the trust curve, where skepticism is high and concerns around hallucination, bias, overconfidence, and opaque data handling continue to fuel distrust among educators and families.

The session examined how trust can be built not through marketing, but through transparent governance, explainable decision pathways, and evidence that withstands scrutiny. The panel addressed critical questions around model selection, evaluation frequency, data storage, access controls, and measurable proof of improved outcomes. Through this conversation, the speakers highlighted how trust can be intentionally engineered into AI-powered products through transparent data policies, rigorous evaluation frameworks, and clear evidence of impact.