# AI cuts the university cost stack faster than demographic decline cuts revenue — the binding constraint becomes institutional will, not arithmetic (Unverified: magnitudes)

**Core claim:** AI substitutes directly for the three dominant line items in university cost structures — instructional labor, grading/TA labor, and administrative staff — at a pace set by attrition, not layoffs, because accreditation, shared governance, and faculty senates gate rapid substitution. A public regional spending ~70% of budget on personnel can absorb AI-enabled efficiency of 10–20% of total spend over a decade (Unverified: extrapolation from published