Join over 4,000 IT professionals to explore how exponential technologies are transforming organizations. Mark your calendar for June 9 – 11, 2026, at The Bellagio, Las Vegas.
California’s Digital Future: Smart, Inclusive, and Citizen-Centric!
The Public Sector Network’s Government Innovation California 2026 event is designed to showcase practical strategies and proven applications that help state and local agencies deliver measurable impact.
The EDUCAUSE Annual Conference connects the best thinkers in higher education technology. The 2026 EDUCAUSE Annual Conference will be held in-person in Denver, CO September 29–October 2.
The Summer Government IT Congress is an intimate take on your traditional conference environment, allowing for 45-50 C-suite & Executive level leaders from state and local government organizations across the country to come together for an opportunity to collaborate, share best practices, network amongst each other and be introduced to potential solutions based on their current/future projects or interests.
Join us at the 2026 East CIO Congress, the premier professional development event designed for K-12 technology leaders.
Get ready to join Texas K-12 Laserfiche users where collaboration, sharing of bold ideas and learning will take place! You will discover how other districts are transforming processes with Laserfiche, have personalized one-on-one assistance with your challenges and follow an interactive “You Design, We Build” workshop. Don’t miss this chance to spark innovation, network with the K-12 community and bring fresh solutions back to your district!
Tuesday, March 31, 2026, from 9:00am – 4:30pm CT.
Each year at the annual EDUCAUSE conference, hosted in Nashville this year, the Laserfiche team gets the chance to connect with the higher education technology professionals driving campus innovation. It’s an enriching experience and an opportunity to discuss how content management can help higher ed teams drive student success. It’s also a forum to explore upcoming challenges higher education will face in the year ahead, and discuss potential solutions to those upcoming challenges.
Based on our conversations with technology leaders at EDUCAUSE, we’ve identified three upcoming challenges and how to face them head on.
Meeting the Looming Enrollment Cliff with Modern Services
With demographic shifts already driving persistent enrollment declines, higher education institutions must pivot from simply attracting applicants to actively fostering an environment that makes students want to stay at their schools which makes administrative efficiency a key value driver.
Students today are digital natives; they expect their university to provide technology and services as accessible and intuitive as the leading consumer apps they use every day.
Institutions can no longer rely on paper-based or clunky legacy digital processes. Successfully navigating enrollment requires a full embrace of modern, technology-driven processes, including:
- Easy-to-use digital student forms
- Seamless self-service portals
- Quick resolution of administrative tasks
When core processes like registration, financial aid applications or petitioning are streamlined and effortless, the institution itself stands out in the eyes of applicants.
Using AI For Back-Office Efficiency
The impact of AI when it comes to modernization continues to grow and is quickly becoming an advantage to higher education institutions. By implementing AI tools for intelligent data capture, automated records routing and document processing, institutions can dramatically reduce the time and cost for back-office tasks like invoice processing or records management. This newfound efficiency and savings can then be strategically reallocated to high-touch student services.
AI can add value across campus departments, including:
- Admissions: Speed up reviews with automatic data capture for all admissions documents.
- Financial Aid: Accelerate awards timing by automatically extracting tax and FAFSA data.
- Credit: Read transcripts in any format to process course equivalencies faster.
Responding to Financial Retrenchment with Technology Audits
The most pressing theme at this year’s conference was the widespread acknowledgment that financial retrenchment is a permanent reality for many institutions. IT leaders are evaluating their tech stacks and identifying where multiple departments may have purchased tools with overlapping capabilities.
IT teams are looking to optimize digital transformation and adopt tools that have the flexibility to adapt across multiple departments and streamline admissions, student services and back-office operations. These platforms should also seamlessly integrate with other solutions, such as a school’s SIS system, so administrators don’t have to duplicate efforts and data can flow freely between departments and processes.
Strategic Efficiency Drives Success
The key message from EDUCAUSE is clear: success in the coming year depends on strategic efficiency. By addressing financial retrenchment through vendor consolidation, improving recruitment via exceptional digital student experiences and leveraging AI to free up staff resources, institutions can thrive.
Interested in learning more about higher education technology, showcased at EDUCAUSE? Learn more now.
- Nearly half of employees are entering company-related information into public AI tools to complete their tasks and hiding their AI use, out of fear of seeming lazy, risky, or non-compliant
- 1 in 10 employees describe AI adoption in their workplace as “the Wild West,” unregulated, unclear, and out of control
LONG BEACH, CALIFORNIA, August 13, 2025 — Laserfiche, the leading SaaS provider of intelligent content management and business process automation, today released new survey findings on AI adoption in the workplace, revealing that nearly half of Americans (49%) who use AI at work keep it to themselves, with 15% deliberately avoiding telling their manager.
As AI tools become more embedded in daily life, the survey reveals a workplace reality that is far less aligned. While many employees are eager to harness AI to boost productivity, inconsistent policies and cultural hesitation are fueling secrecy around AI adoption at work. Employees who are hiding their AI use worry it will be seen as lazy (16%), risky (15%), or out of step with company policy (16%).
A Mixed Workforce Mood
Employee sentiment around AI remains divided. While 21% are optimistic, and 22% say AI already helps them work faster or more efficiently, others are more cautious. Nineteen percent are skeptical, citing concerns about accuracy or misuse, and 13% are anxious or resistant, uneasy about the risks and consequences of incorporating AI into their workflows.
Younger generations are more optimistic about AI at work: 24% of Gen Z and 20% of Millennials say they see its potential but are still learning how to use it, compared to just 10% of Baby Boomers.
A New Frontier — with New Risk
Only one in three employees (36%) say their workplace has clear policies and approved AI tools in place. Meanwhile, 1 in 10 describe their organization’s AI environment as “the Wild West,” an unregulated space where people do what they want.
That lack of structure has consequences. Nearly half of employees (46%) admit to pasting company information into public AI tools, such as ChatGPT or Google Gemini, sometimes without knowing if the content is sensitive or confidential. Many turn to these tools in an attempt to gain a competitive edge (24%) or because their company’s own tools are too limited or hard to use (23%).
Older employees are significantly more cautious about using unofficial AI tools at work: 69% of Baby Boomers and the Silent Generation, and 35% of Gen X, avoid these tools, compared to just 21% of Millennials and 17% of Gen Z.
The Path Forward: Build Culture Before Crisis
These findings highlight a growing AI governance gap. Usage is outpacing policy, and fear is replacing transparency. To solve this, organizations must do more than roll out AI tools. They need to foster a culture where employees feel informed, supported, and aligned on how and when to use them.
“When employees feel like AI is their ‘dirty little secret,’ that’s not a tech problem, it’s a leadership one,” said Karl Chan, CEO of Laserfiche. “Many employees are eager to embrace AI to work but often resort to unofficial tools when company-approved options are too limited or difficult to use. Innovative organizations can meet employee needs and unlock new potential by implementing guidelines, and adopting IT-vetted, intuitive AI tools that help employees reach productivity goals.”
Methodology
The survey was conducted by Veridata Insights and commissioned by Laserfiche. It included 1,000 U.S.-based individuals aged 18 and over, census-balanced by age and gender.
About Laserfiche
Laserfiche is a leading enterprise platform that helps organizations digitally transform operations and manage their content with AI-powered solutions. Through scalable workflows, customizable forms, no-code templates and AI-enabled capabilities, the Laserfiche® document management platform accelerates how business gets done. Trusted by organizations of all sizes — from startups to Fortune 500 enterprises — Laserfiche empowers teams to boost productivity, foster collaboration, and deliver a superior customer experience at scale. Headquartered in Long Beach, California, Laserfiche operates globally, with offices across North America, Europe, and Asia.