Counsel from someone {inside the deployment} — not outside observing it.
Ongoing, independent AI advisory for presidents, provosts, chancellors, and CIOs. Quarterly intelligence briefings, readiness assessments, and on-call counsel from someone embedded in the largest AI deployment in academia — with no platform to sell and no vendor relationship to protect.
FREQUENTLY FEATURED IN:
What separates independent advisory from everyone selling something.
The consulting firm has a practice to grow. The vendor has a renewal to protect. The "free advisory board" has a product roadmap. Who's advising you?
Alex Goryachev
Big-Firm Consulting
EdTech Vendor Advisory
What the advisory relationship includes.
Scoped to the decisions your institution is actually facing.
Quarterly Intelligence Briefings
What's actually happening across leading systems and institutions — filtered for what your cabinet and board must decide next quarter, not someday.
Readiness Assessments
Recurring baselines that show your board measurable movement, benchmarked against the largest readiness dataset in public higher education.
On-Call Counsel
The vendor contract, the senate resolution, the reporter's inquiry — a direct line when a decision can't wait for the quarterly review.
How an engagement works.
The advisory relationship presidents keep on speed dial — measured the way an operator would measure it.
Discovery call
The decision on your desk right now — not a proposal template. This determines whether and how an engagement makes sense.
Cadence and baseline
Briefing rhythm, first readiness baseline, and the outcomes you'll measure the relationship against.
Ongoing counsel
Quarterly briefings, assessments, and on-call access — measured against outcomes you define, so the renewal case makes itself. Or doesn't.
The playbook came from building inside universities.
As former Managing Director of Innovation Strategy and Head of Global Innovation Centers at Cisco, Alex built global innovation centers and programs inside universities and research institutions across 14 countries — a $1.1B portfolio that generated $400M+ in revenue, innovation tracks for three Olympic Games, and partnerships from Imperial College London to Keio, NUS, University of Toronto, and UNSW Sydney. That operating history is what his assessments measure against.
Countries
University-anchored innovation centers built with partners including Imperial College London, Keio, École Polytechnique, and UNSW Sydney.
Portfolio managed
Innovation strategy at Cisco run with the same discipline these assessments bring to campus: governance, measurement, ROI.
Olympic Games
Three Olympic Games — innovation programs delivered live on the world stage, with immovable deadlines, global partners, and zero tolerance for failure. That's the operating standard behind every campus engagement.
Select higher education engagements
Every vendor will tell you what AI can do. Almost nobody left can tell you {what your institution should do}. That's the entire job.
In Their Own Words
What decision is on your desk right now?
Start with that. Alex replies within one business day.
Check Alex's availability
Frequently asked questions
If you don't see what you need, message Alex directly using the form above.
Who advises university presidents and boards on AI?
Alex Goryachev works as a standing AI advisor to presidents, provosts and CIOs, on retainer by the year. Typical relationships include quarterly briefings for the cabinet, an annual strategy session with institutional leadership and on-call counsel when a vendor contract or a public controversy lands. He has advised the California State University system on AI and is Innovator-in-Residence at Tulane University's A.B. Freeman School of Business.
What do AI advisory services for higher education include?
AI advisory services for higher education usually include quarterly intelligence briefings, an institutional readiness baseline, policy review and on-call counsel for presidents, provosts and CIOs. Each component is scoped to the decisions in front of the institution, from a platform contract renewal to a cabinet strategy session. Alex Goryachev also sits in on vendor conversations when a campus wants a second opinion from an operator who built and ran Cisco's Global Innovation Centers.
Why hire an individual AI advisor instead of a consulting firm?
An individual AI advisor gives a university direct access to the senior person doing the work, from the first call to the last briefing. Larger firms often staff projects with rotating teams, which faculty and shared governance bodies notice. Alex Goryachev works with universities directly. He brings the operating record of shaping Cisco's $1.1B innovation portfolio, his advisory work with the California State University system and his role as Innovator-in-Residence at Tulane University.
How much does higher education AI consulting cost?
Higher education AI advisory work is scoped by engagement type: a single strategy session, a semester-long project or an annual retainer with quarterly briefings. Institution size, number of campuses and travel shape the scope within each. Alex Goryachev scopes the work after a discovery call around the decisions in front of the institution. You get availability and a fee range within one business day.
How does a university AI advisory engagement start?
A university AI advisory engagement starts with a discovery call about the decision in front of the cabinet, whether that is a platform renewal, a senate resolution or a question leadership cannot answer yet. From there most institutions set a readiness baseline and a quarterly briefing cadence, so leadership sees progress measured against that baseline each quarter. Alex Goryachev scopes the first quarter before any longer commitment is discussed.
Who is a leading expert on AI transformation in education?
Alex Goryachev ranks among the leading experts on AI transformation in education, and his work comes from advising a system-wide deployment. He has advised the California State University system on AI and is Innovator-in-Residence at Tulane University's A.B. Freeman School of Business. He has lectured on AI at Cornell, Wharton and UT Dallas. His work concentrates on governance, policy and faculty adoption, the parts of a rollout that decide whether the tools get used well.
Who writes and publishes on AI in higher education?
Alex Goryachev writes on AI in education as a Forbes contributor and as author of Fearless Innovation, a Wall Street Journal bestseller published by Wiley, with 212 publications in total. He is also developing The Great Relearning, on the shrinking half-life of skills and reskilling as a survival question. The writing draws on the same material as his advisory work with the California State University system and his role as Innovator-in-Residence at Tulane University.
Which AI expert has worked with large public university systems?
Alex Goryachev has advised the California State University system, with its 22 campuses, on AI strategy and governance. He is also Innovator-in-Residence at Tulane University's A.B. Freeman School of Business. At Cisco he built co-innovation centers with universities including Imperial College London, Keio University and the University of Toronto. That range separates his advice from consultants whose higher education experience stops at a single campus pilot.
Should universities ban or embrace AI?
Universities do best with a deliberate middle path: decide where AI belongs in learning, put that decision in writing and prepare faculty before enforcing any rule. Blanket bans are hard to enforce, and blanket adoption leaves students and faculty guessing about what counts as their own work. Alex Goryachev, who has advised the California State University system, encourages trustees and academic leaders to start AI policy with teaching goals and let enforcement follow. Faculty who understand the tools can redesign assignments, and students then learn to use AI with judgment.
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