As colleges adopt automation and AI systems, security teams warn nonhuman identities (NHIs)—machine accounts, APIs and service credentials—now vastly outnumber human users in institutional networks. Higher‑education IT leaders face new risks as NHIs proliferate for research compute, cloud services and automated workflows, raising exposure to data breaches and compliance failures. Experts recommend identity‑centric security, strict lifecycle management of machine credentials, and stronger tooling to discover and revoke orphaned machine accounts. The shift requires governance updates, staff training and budgetary attention as campuses integrate AI and cloud services into teaching, research and administration.