AI in Strategic Planning and Decision-Making for Educational Leaders

The integration of AI into educational leadership has begun to affect how leaders make decisions, distribute resources, and carry out their vision. This chapter will discuss how AI can help educational leaders improve the way they create and implement strategic plans and make decisions. The chapter will draw upon research from various disciplines to define AI in an educational context and provide information on the ways that AI is currently being used by educators such as predictive analytics, personalized recommendations, and live tracking. In addition, this chapter will focus on the practical application of AI through case studies from South Africa, Nigeria, and the UK. The case studies highlight how both public and private organizations utilize AI to support data-driven leadership; equitable distribution of resources; and accountability among schools. The chapter will address the technological, ethical and infrastructural challenges associated with utilizing AI (such as privacy of data, ensuring non-bias within algorithms, addressing digital divides, and creating skill sets) and provide guidance to educational leaders who seek to develop data literacy, ethics, collaboration among sectors, and assure that AI systems serve all stakeholders, remain open to new approaches, and align with goals of fairness and excellence in education. The author views AI as not merely a tool to aid in the development of effective, innovative, responsive and forward thinking education systems, but as a vital partner to achieve these goals.