Foris at IFE Conference 2026: reflections on AI, education, and the future
Being a sponsor at IFE Conference - Institute for the Future of Education gave us the opportunity to connect with more than 1,000 organizations, universities, and academic leaders and to reflect on the real impact of artificial intelligence on higher education.
"May artificial intelligence become a powerful tool to expand capabilities and accelerate solutions, one that doesn't replace people but empowers them." Juan Pablo Murra Lascurain - Rector of Tecnológico de Monterrey.
The event brought together 4,600 in-person attendees and 1,500 virtual participants, with 46 countries represented, all focused on redesigning the future of education. The conversation was organized around five themes: educational trends, technology for education, academic innovation in health, managing educational innovation, and lifelong learning.
How to take AI from promise to real, scalable solutions within universities
Our participation in #IFEConference2026 was also an opportunity to contribute our experience in academic operations.
In the talk "Beyond the chatbot: how to combine GenAI, ML, and optimization to transform academic management," David Ignacio Cozmar R., Director of Engineering at Foris, addressed one of the biggest blind spots in the conversation about AI. While assistants and chatbots have captured much of the attention, many of the most critical challenges in the university ecosystem, such as segmenting students, automating complex processes, predicting academic outcomes, or optimizing schedules, cannot be solved with language models alone. His proposal: the future lies in "hybrid intelligence," where agentic workflows combine the conversational ability of GenAI, the predictive power of machine learning, and the precision of optimization models to build systems that don't just converse but actually solve the problems of the campus, students, and academic teams.
Meanwhile, Felipe Meneses D., CEO of Foris, gave the talk "AI-ready university: a roadmap from system chaos to operational agents," which focused on one of today's biggest challenges: moving from isolated GenAI pilots to production solutions that scale and create impact. The talk exposed a recurring pattern at institutions: without quality data, interoperability, and a clear operational roadmap, no artificial intelligence will work. Drawing on studies of AI-centric organizations and the widening gap in GenAI adoption, the message was this: the universities making progress are not the ones testing the most tools, but the ones redesigning their technology foundations and processes to become truly AI-ready.
Preparing the playing field for tomorrow's agents today
At Foris, we have spent 15 years digitizing university operations, building the foundations that now make it possible to scale artificial intelligence. That journey drives us to keep supporting our partner universities as they prepare for the agentic world: with DSLs and rule engines for agents, guardrails for human oversight, structured APIs with institutional context, and optimizers that agents can invoke.
"The infrastructure built today will be the playing field for tomorrow's agents."
We will keep driving education forward alongside the institutions leading this transformation. Events like IFE Conference - Institute for the Future of Education let us connect, share what we've learned, and turn these capabilities into real solutions. We look forward to seeing you at the next edition and to continuing to build together.
Discover more about our technology solutions for higher education at foris.ai