Higher‑education leaders face a twofold AI agenda: adopt human‑centered AI to improve recruitment, onboarding, learning design and retention, while addressing emergent legal risks around data privacy, discrimination, and academic integrity. Practical guidance—framed as human‑centered pilots across the learner journey—recommends small-scale, trust‑building deployments (conversational tools for enrollment, tailored onboarding agents, faculty supports) rather than wholesale automation. Simultaneously, legal counsel and compliance offices must track three primary AI liabilities—data privacy and vendor governance, anti‑discrimination exposures in algorithmic decisions, and academic‑integrity and IP enforcement. Institutions should enact cross‑functional AI governance, vendor due diligence, and transparent student‑facing policies before scaling. The combined guidance underscores that AI strategy in higher ed will hinge on people, process and documented legal safeguards.