Personalized and Adaptive Learning in Smart Institutions: Thinking Alongside AI Through Responsible Feedback Infrastructures

This chapter examines how AI-driven formative feedback systems function within smart institutions as mechanisms for personalized and adaptive learning while simultaneously addressing structural challenges in contemporary higher education. Through a detailed analysis of MeritMinds, a multi-agent AI feedback platform, the chapter explores how such systems can support scalable personalization, redistribute academic labor responsibly, and cultivate AI literacy grounded in critical thinking. The analysis positions these technologies not as efficiency tools but as pedagogical infrastructures that enable students to think alongside AI rather than delegate cognition to it. Drawing on assessment theory, educational technology research, and institutional governance frameworks, the chapter argues that universities must move beyond reactive responses to AI toward deliberate pedagogical integration that preserves academic judgment while preparing students for AI-saturated professional and civic environments.