As artificial intelligence reshapes learning, work, and public services, North Carolina is moving to pair innovation with public trust.
In July, the North Carolina AI Leadership Council, convened in 2025 by Governor Josh Stein’s Executive Order No. 24, released the North Carolina AI Strategic Roadmap, a statewide framework designed to help state agencies and other stakeholders establish North Carolina as a national leader in the responsible adoption and implementation of artificial intelligence.
Helping inform those recommendations was a team of researchers and industry leaders from across the state, including four UNC School of Education doctoral students.
Jennifer Tong (M.A.Ed. ’06), Keith Livesay, and Govan Garner, students in the School of Education’s Ed.D. in K-12 Educational Leadership program, joined Jonathan Walsh, a third-year Ph.D. student in Education’s Policy, Leadership, and School Improvement, in supporting the AI Leadership Council’s Talent and Workforce Development Subcommittee.
The final roadmap lays out 17 strategic goals centered on three priorities: 1) Protecting residents from the harms of AI; 2) preparing North Carolinians for an evolving workforce; and 3) Transforming government services through responsible innovation.
The students’ work examined AI literacy and AI’s impact on degrees and credentialing, workforce development, community partnerships, and educational programs, while also examining how other states, countries and industries are responding to AI. Throughout the semester, they produced reports and policy recommendation briefs that were reviewed by members of the AI Leadership Council as the roadmap took shape.
Much of the subcommittee’s work focused on the intersection of AI, education, and workforce development. That meant looking beyond the technology itself and considering its implications for the North Carolinians who will live and work alongside it.
“Like education, there is no single way AI affects people,” Walsh said.
“Generative AI has the potential to be a transformative tool, but it has limits, and it is important to recognize those limits,” Tong said.
“It’s about making sure AI enhances human decision-making rather than replacing it, while protecting privacy, reducing bias, and maintaining accountability,” Livesay said.
From research to policy
For many doctoral students, research findings are most often shared through conference presentations, journal articles, or dissertations. This project offered something different — the opportunity to contribute to recommendations intended for state leaders and policymakers that can make immediate impact.
Tong and Livesay, both working educators, said the project’s scope became especially clear while studying how schools, colleges, and governments were responding to generative AI.
“Our discussions centered around the opportunities that this could bring to the K–12 students of North Carolina and the population as a whole,” Tong said.
“It gave me the opportunity to bring an educator’s perspective to a statewide conversation and contribute to decisions that could impact students, schools, and communities for years to come,” Livesay said.
For Walsh, whose research examines the relationships between work, life, and identity, the experience reinforced questions that extend beyond AI itself.
“Learning about the ways AI stands to disrupt those relationships has been eye-opening,” Walsh said. “Learning the ways that questions about what work means, what we want out of a career, and what it means to navigate those things in the face of change remain unchanged has been inspiring.”
Walsh said the work also reflected skills he developed through the School of Education’s Ph.D. program and the mentorship of faculty and staff.
“I have been lucky to have professors and mentors who have developed my ability to think critically and dispassionately and, perhaps most importantly, to pay attention,” Walsh said. “Our team of researchers pored over a lot of information, and reading closely to see what the story was, rather than to impose a story of our own, is something I credit to the wonderful professors and staff here.”
Balancing vision and prudence
As North Carolina begins implementing the roadmap’s recommendations, the four contributors see significant opportunities ahead for educators and learners. At the same time, they stress that meaningful progress will require careful and continuing consideration.
“I think one of the biggest opportunities is using AI to support educators and expand learning opportunities for students. It has the potential to reduce administrative burdens, personalize learning, and help educators make more informed decisions,” Livesay said. “At the same time, we have to pay close attention to issues like privacy, equitable access, and ensuring AI supports, not replaces, the relationships that are at the heart of education.”
“The novelty of AI can make it easy to see it as being more powerful than it is,” Walsh said. “Wholesale embrace of something new can seem more forward-thinking than wholesale rejection but truly considering the long-term future benefits from a balance of vision and prudence.”
For those who helped inform it, the roadmap is more than a policy document. It reflects the voices of educators and scholars who will be helping students and communities navigate the technology’s effects for years to come.
“The decisions our government makes today, what to invest in, what to wait on, and what to try and stop, will affect how our state benefits from, or is harmed by, AI years from now,” Walsh said.