Off the Rails Episode 148: What if Teams gets worse and more expensive?

Nov 12

Recorded November 6, 2026

This week, we tackle the growing problem of AI being forced into every corner of the Google and Microsoft ecosystems. What happens when schools want to opt out of AI features but discover that doing so means losing access to services they already depend on? We discuss institutional control, data privacy, vendor lock-in, and the increasingly blurry line between optional features and mandatory integrations.

Next, we explore the strange world of observation and counseling spaces found across higher education. From psychology labs and speech therapy rooms to clinical simulations and business school focus groups, these specialized spaces often come with proprietary recording systems, questionable design decisions, and expensive service contracts. Why do departments keep buying complicated solutions to relatively straightforward AV problems, and why does the campus AV team inevitably inherit the mess?

Finally, it's contract renewal season, and those sweetheart pandemic-era deals for Zoom, Teams, and Microsoft 365 are coming back to haunt us. With major price increases looming, universities are reconsidering overlapping platforms and discovering that migrating from one ecosystem to another is far more complicated than swapping licenses. We discuss the hidden costs, faculty expectations, LMS integrations, and whether institutions are becoming permanently trapped in their vendors' ecosystems.

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