On 13 May, XJTLU's Centre for Knowledge and Information (CKI) hosted AI Learning Day at XJTLU Entrepreneur College (Taicang), gathering experts, scholars, and practitioners to examine how AI is reshaping university teaching and administration. The event showcased the institution's latest work in AI-enabled teaching innovation and digital administration under the theme "Empowering University Teaching and Administration Through Digital Intelligent Platforms."
Dr Xin Bi, XJTLU's Chief Officer of Data and Director of CKI, opened with a warning about cognitive offloading. Drawing on Daniel Kahneman's dual-system theory, he explained that limited cognitive resources push people toward fast, intuitive thinking. In the AI era, over-reliance on external tools risks weakening memory, analytical reasoning, and independent judgement.
"We must be careful not to let AI become a substitute for human cognition," Dr Bi said. "Education shouldn't just help people finish tasks faster. It should build cognitive endurance, metacognitive skills, and the ability to solve complex problems - with humans leading and AI supporting."
Teachers as facilitators, not transmitters
Kaile Zhu, a teacher at XJTLU Affiliated School, described his experience of relearning how to teach. Using design-themed classroom examples, he showed how AI helps overcome the limits of traditional teaching resources and reshapes the teacher-student dynamic. Students now explore and create proactively rather than waiting for answers. Teachers, he said, are shifting from knowledge transmitters to learning facilitators and context designers. This shift mirrors the focus of an AI Learning Path for Teachers, where the role of the educator evolves alongside new tools.
Dr Miaomiao Liu, from XJTLU's International Business School Suzhou, introduced a multi-agent AI tutor built for Year Two marketing students. The system combines intent and cognitive-level classification to offer personalised support across module learning, research guidance, internships, employment, competitions, and student activities.
Natasha Atmadja, a student from the School of Advanced Technology, presented a multi-agent collaboration system that uses separate agents for translation, summarisation, and task allocation. The design helps multilingual teams communicate and collaborate more smoothly.
Digital platforms cut administrative workload
Qian Wang, from the Campus Management Office, demonstrated the smart campus service platform. Using AI agents and no-code tools, the system streamlines vehicle applications, meeting room bookings, and infrastructure projects - cutting manual workload for service tickets by 45%.
Jun Wang, from the Library, presented data-driven transformation efforts spanning resource evaluation, contract management, reader services, and AI-powered academic search. "Data is the foundation of AI applications," she said. "The Library is moving from a traditional resource provider to a partner across the whole learning and research journey."
An interactive exhibition ran alongside the talks. Teams from the Library, University Marketing and Communications, the Museum, Learning Mall, the Management Information Technology and System Office, and the College of Industry-Entrepreneurs' Digital Transformation Research Centre showed AI applications in social media, cultural experiences, administrative tools, and data visualisation.
Why this matters for education professionals
The event surfaced a clear, practical tension: AI can accelerate routine tasks, but it also risks eroding the cognitive skills that higher education is meant to build. For educators, the takeaway is not to reject AI, but to design learning experiences where students do the hard thinking. The shift from knowledge transmitter to facilitator and context designer is already happening in classrooms. The institutions that support this transition with targeted training in AI for Education will be better positioned to preserve rigorous, human-led learning while using AI to handle the administrative load that drains time and attention.
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