Alex Goryachev works with presidents, provosts, CIOs, and academic leadership committees to cut through AI confusion, build governance frameworks, and lead their campus communities with clarity. As an AI Working Group Member at the California State University system, he brings inside access to the largest AI deployment in US public higher education.
From governance frameworks to faculty town halls, Alex delivers the AI clarity academic leadership needs to move from uncertainty to decisive action.
No AI platform to sell. No vendor relationship. No consulting firm behind the advice. Just independent, data-backed guidance from someone inside the largest AI deployment in academia — with no agenda other than getting it right.
Embedded inside the California State University system — 22 campuses, 460,000 students. Alex isn't reporting on the transformation. He helped produce the most comprehensive AI readiness report ever built for a public university system.
As Managing Director of Cisco's Global Innovation Centers — built in partnership with Dell, IBM, Pfizer, and leading global enterprises — Alex established university-anchored innovation hubs across 14 countries, embedding industry partnerships, AI research infrastructure, and entrepreneurship programs directly inside academic institutions. He didn't advise from the outside. He built from the inside.
Decades building innovation infrastructure at universities across 14 countries. Led innovation programs for organizations including Cisco, Dell, IBM, and Pfizer. Innovator-in-Residence at Tulane University. WSJ bestselling author. The practitioner academic senate committees and provost councils hire when they need more than a keynote.
From mainstage convocations to closed-door governance sprints, Alex delivers experiences designed around your institution's culture, community, and strategic moment.
The ongoing relationship for presidents, provosts, chancellors, and CIOs. Quarterly intelligence briefings, institutional AI readiness assessments, and on-call guidance from someone embedded in the largest AI deployment in academia. Designed to inform strategic planning committees, academic affairs cabinets, and board-level AI oversight conversations. No platform to push. No vendor relationship.
For institutions ready to move beyond ad hoc AI adoption and build a real transformation strategy. Alex works with presidents, provosts, deans, department chairs, and CIOs to define the vision, align shared governance bodies, restructure academic workflows, and build the institutional capacity to sustain AI-driven change. Transformation assessments, stakeholder alignment workshops, and multi-year roadmaps — drawn from scaling innovation inside universities across 14 countries.
Data-backed talks built on real institutional experience — not trends, not vendor demos. Tailored for faculty senates, academic convocations, provost and dean retreats, curriculum committee workshops, and national higher education conferences. Alex speaks to what faculty, students, and administrators are actually experiencing, because he helped produce the research that captured it.
Structured listening and facilitation engagements that bridge faculty, staff, student, and administrator perspectives on AI. Designed for polarized campus communities — faculty governance bodies, academic senates, student affairs committees — where unmoderated conversation produces conflict rather than consensus. Alex facilitates and translates findings into action-ready recommendations for institutional leadership and shared governance committees.
For institutions managing AI adoption without a governance framework. Alex works with CIOs, academic affairs leadership, and policy committees to build the governance architecture — decision rights, acceptable use policies, academic integrity standards, communications strategy, and institutional AI roadmap. Rapid-cycle sprints with clear deliverables, designed to produce policy drafts and committee-ready frameworks your institution can act on immediately.
Most institutions are implementing AI. Very few are measuring whether it's working. Alex works with CIOs, institutional research offices, and academic assessment committees to build meaningful AI impact frameworks — defining the right metrics for learning outcomes, competency attainment, faculty adoption rates, equity gaps, and institutional ROI. Includes AI readiness assessments, pre/post deployment evaluations, and accreditation-aligned reporting frameworks grounded in the largest AI readiness dataset ever produced for a public university system.
Every institution is asking this question. Very few have a framework to answer it. Let's talk about what it actually takes to prepare students — and institutions — for what's coming.