The Pixarfication of Higher Education

Commodities in Higher Education (HE) are increasingly formed, shaped, and sold in processes that are driven by data analytics and Artificial Intelligence (AI). Increasingly, the data that comprises such commodities is anthropomorphised. The data ‘tells’ us about the performance of our universities and using data analytic platforms we can ‘ask questions’ of the data. The ways in which AI technologies drive this process of commodity fetishism is described as Pixarfication. As in Pixar films, AI and associated technologies seemingly enliven and animate objects. As with previous corporate metaphors, which have been applied to HE (McDonaldisation and Disneyization), there are problems with using these metaphors in universities. However, Pixarfication has conceptual power in identifying the different stages of ‘datafication’. Using examples of differing AI-driven analytic platforms, and league tables, in HE, Pixarfication is shown to structure HE commodities, and their comparison, increasingly driving university strategies.