Morgan State University’s CIO and IT leadership are betting that higher returns on AI strategy will depend less on new platforms and more on building data literacy across staff roles. The story highlights how a dean can pull live enrollment trend data immediately without tickets at Morgan State, while similar requests at many institutions can take weeks. Timothy Summers, vice president of IT and CIO at the Baltimore-based HBCU, positions data literacy as the operational bridge that allows AI initiatives—like forecasting and decision support—to move from pilots to dependable use. The approach reframes AI adoption as a workforce capability issue, emphasizing training, data interpretation, and governance around who can access and question analytics. For universities planning AI and automation, the article underscores that ROI hinges on organizational readiness, not just tooling.