By 
Dear colleagues,
Writing a welcome when the context is AI always feels a little odd; things move so quickly in the space that it feels more like waving hello from a moving car. Nonetheless, we all hope you had a restful and peaceful summer and are feeling positive and emboldened about the year ahead.
A lot has changed at Kent
Unsurprisingly, lots of things have changed in the AI space at Kent. 12 months ago, I had just started my role and was writing the student guidance on Moodle and our webpages as well as the staff guidance on Sharepoint. We had no AI tool at the institution and both staff and students wanted guidance on how to approach this new and disruptive force.
Since then, we have seen the establishing of a full AI team, our move from Student Life to ITS, the rollout of ChatGPT Edu, the development of Kent’s AI Principles, the expansion of our in-person training offer, and the beginning of many exciting projects to support colleagues across the institution (more in this to follow in the coming weeks and months!). And this is just at Kent: the journey AI tools have gone on in the last year have continued to be rapid and impactful.
Our team works closely together, but we take on very different tasks. Our trainers (myself, Jack Dice, and Kerstin Cable) provide training and support to colleagues across the institution, building AI literacy, and helping people to envision where AI may (and may not) be beneficial in their roles.
Our developers (Richard Ogundele, Connor Walker, and Shoaib Mohammed) manage the ChatGPT Edu environment, building tools to support colleagues, and offering technical support across the institution. From a team of two back in September 2025 to a team of six now, we now provide a much more comprehensive and holistic offer… and those training materials, having had another few sets of eyes on them, are much improved too!
Serious about AI
Anyone who was in attendance at any of the Welcome Week talks I delivered to students or who came by to say hello at our Welcome Week stand will have heard me mention this next part a lot:
If I could choose one word to describe the way we think about AI in our team, it would be “serious”.
Not “pro-AI”, not “anti-AI”, but “serious about AI”.
But what does this mean?
But what does this mean?
It means we accept that we have little to no control over the wider development of AI, but we do have a responsibility within our ”little bubble” at Kent to provide a vision that is positive and careful.
Positive here does not mean “heavy use from all”. It means informed decision-making. It means increased AI literacy. It means acknowledging the many challenges AI presents for Higher Education and the wider world whilst offering some potential thoughts and solutions (not all of which have to include AI tools). It means being upfront and acknowledging the concerns people have around AI and offering space to discuss these.
It means supporting you all to teach and work in an AI-influenced world in the way that most speaks to you and your area. In short, AI is here, but we want to keep you in control through training and informed discussion.
Literacy without use
By way of demonstrating this,none of the core literacy training we offer requires you or any of your students to use AI tools.
Our training is built around the principle of “Literacy without use”, meaning that students and colleagues who, for very legitimate reasons, do not wish to use AI tools are still afforded an opportunity to learn how AI tools work.
As a trainer in our team wisely noted, the presence of AI in our daily lives makes AI literacy a “civic skill”, one which we believe no-one should be excluded from.
How we can support you
Throughout the year, we will be posting on this blog and undertaking lots of other activities to train and support you all (should you want it). You can also visit our SharePoint page to find out when we are running training sessions or to seek support from our trainers or developers.
Whether you are yourself pro-AI, anti-AI, or somewhere in between, we hope that you will feel supported and heard by us throughout this year. Please email us via AITeam@kent.ac.uk if you have any questions or concerns. We look forward to hearing from you and working with you.
Oliver