Artificial Intelligence in Higher Education

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is rapidly transforming higher education, reshaping pedagogical practices, administrative operations, and institutional strategies. This literature review synthesizes recent scholarship (2023–2025) to examine how AI, particularly generative tools such as ChatGPT, is being integrated across global higher education contexts. Findings highlight dual pathways of adoption: pedagogically, AI supports personalized and adaptive learning, intelligent tutoring, content creation, and collaborative learning environments; administratively, it enables data-driven decision-making, resource optimization, and student lifecycle management. While offering significant opportunities, AI adoption raises critical ethical concerns, including academic integrity, data privacy, algorithmic bias, and risks to human development and social interaction. Institutional strategies for effective AI integration emphasize the importance of responsible leadership, robust governance frameworks, faculty development, and infrastructure investment. Student perspectives reveal widespread adoption of AI tools, driven by efficiency and workload pressures, but tempered by concerns about reliability, autonomy, and social consequences. Global analyses underscore disparities in adoption across regions, with most research originating from high-income countries, leaving gaps in understanding cross-cultural and equity-focused implications. The review concludes that AI in higher education is not merely a technological shift but a systemic transformation requiring balanced approaches that align innovation with ethics, efficiency with equity, and automation with human values. Recommendations are offered for institutional leaders, faculty, students, and researchers to guide responsible and sustainable AI implementation in higher education.