Nearly 20 years ago, when I first joined the Foundation for California Community Colleges (FoundationCCC), the backdrop for one of our events could fit in the trunk of my car. That memory came back to me at Futures Summit 2026. Looking around at the massive screens, expansive backdrops, sophisticated technology, and overall scale of the experience, it was hard not to think about how much has changed. Not just for FoundationCCC, but for the California Community Colleges and the world around us.

The conversations happening on those stages would have been difficult to imagine 20 years ago, too. Artificial intelligence is rapidly changing how we learn, work, communicate, and solve problems. The Summit’s theme, “Human Skills in an Autonomous World,” asked us to consider what that means for education and, more importantly, for people.

Chancellor Sonya Christian set an important tone for that conversation, emphasizing the critical role people must continue to play in guiding this period of extraordinary innovation. That idea stayed with me throughout the Summit. The capabilities of our technology may be changing rapidly, but people still have to decide what we want those capabilities to accomplish.

FoundationCCC Board member Jennifer Perry introduced another dimension to the conversation by welcoming former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, with whom she has a longstanding relationship from their years in politics. Drawing from his experience connecting education and workforce development, Emanuel spoke passionately about preparing people for a changing economy. He raised concerns about whether our public policies and guardrails are keeping pace with technological change.

For California’s community colleges, these aren’t abstract questions. Our colleges are where education, workforce, technology, and economic opportunity intersect every day.

Keeping People at the Center

I saw that reflected in the work of our own Program Pathways Mapper (PPM) team. At the Summit, the team presented how we are integrating artificial intelligence into the student-facing PPM experience. I was particularly proud of Jazelle Quinto, who did an exceptional job representing the work and the thinking behind it.

Within the PPM team, we talk a lot about what we don’t want AI to do. We don’t want it to replace the counselor. The interaction between a student and someone who understands their goals, circumstances, questions, and possibilities is sacred. Our goal is to use technology to make that interaction more informed.

If AI can help students better understand their options, explore possible pathways, and arrive with better questions, counselors can spend more of their time doing what people do particularly well: listening, understanding context, exercising judgment, and helping students make consequential decisions about their futures.

That is one of the opportunities I see in this moment. The question isn’t simply what AI is capable of doing for us. It is what technology can make us more capable of doing for one another.

Innovation through Collaboration

In some ways, the Summit itself demonstrated that point. FoundationCCC is a remote-first organization. I see every day what technology makes possible when people can collaborate across geography, organizations, and disciplines. But one of my biggest takeaways from Futures Summit was how good it was simply to be in the room with colleagues from across the California Community Colleges system.

That included having FoundationCCC Board members Yasmin Davidds and Kirk Tramble there and actively engaged throughout the Summit. Yasmin brings a real passion for the human side of leadership, so there was something especially fitting about having her perspective in the room for these conversations. And Kirk is one of our newest Board members, so it was equally great to see him jump in feet first, making connections and becoming part of the conversation.

There was something fitting about gathering in person to discuss human skills in an autonomous world. Conversations between sessions, unexpected introductions, reconnecting with longtime colleagues, and meeting people face-to-face reminded me that communication and connection aren’t always the same thing. Sometimes being together matters.

Creating that kind of experience doesn’t happen by accident. I was incredibly proud of FoundationCCC’s Conferences and Events team and the extraordinarily high standard they brought to the Summit, as well as our Communications team, whose work helped shape how the ideas and experiences of the event came to life. The Summit didn’t just talk about human connection. The work of these teams helped create the conditions for it.

That, to me, is also an important part of FoundationCCC’s role. We have the opportunity to bring together colleges, the Chancellor’s Office, educators, technology leaders, public agencies, philanthropy, and private-sector partners, combining different capabilities to help move promising ideas from possibility to implementation.

Designing what Comes Next

Twenty years from now, I suspect the technology surrounding us will make today’s massive screens seem as quaint as that backdrop in the trunk of my car.

What I hope doesn’t change is our focus on why we are using it.

California’s community colleges have an extraordinary opportunity to embrace AI and emerging technologies, not simply to automate what we already do, but to design better experiences around what people actually need. We can remove unnecessary friction, expand what is possible, and give students and educators better tools while becoming even more intentional about the human relationships, judgment, creativity, and trust that technology should strengthen rather than replace.

The future may be increasingly autonomous. Our responsibility is to make sure it is also more human by design.