The Digital Education Council’s “Global AI Faculty Survey, 2025"gathered responses from 1,681 faculty members across 28 countries. A solid 39 percent have not used AI in their teaching, which is noteworthy considering that 86 percent see themselves using AI in the future.
U.S. respondents were notably more skeptical about AI than their peers elsewhere. Only 76 percent of those in the United States and Canada could see themselves using AI in future teaching, compared to 90 percent or more of faculty members from other parts of the world.
So what has stopped faculty members from using AI so far? A lack of time and resources, uncertainty over how to use AI, and concerns about potential negative impacts were the top three reasons given.
Does this matter? It depends. If you think that incorporating AI into teaching helps prepare students for future jobs — as 66 percent of respondents do — then yes. Or if you believe that AI’s existence requires significant changes in how students are assessed — as 54 percent of respondents do — then also yes.
And half of faculty members felt that current assignments need to be redesigned to be more AI resistant. But that would also seem to require an understanding of how AI works.
There is plenty more in this survey that supports the idea that both faculty members and students need to become more AI literate. For example, 83 percent of respondents are concerned about students’ ability to critically evaluate AI output. And 82 percent are worried that students may become too reliant on AI.
Here’s the kicker: 78 percent of faculty do not believe their institution has provided sufficient resources to develop their AI literacy. So, in short, many faculty members see AI as having a significant impact on teaching and learning, but few feel ready or supported in becoming AI literate themselves.
The other study, “Leading Through Disruption: Higher Education Executives Assess AI’s Impacts on Teaching and Learning” was conducted by the American Association of Colleges and Universities and Elon University’s Imagining the Digital Future Center. It surveyed more than 330 university presidents, chancellors, provosts, and other senior leaders.
As I wrote in a story last week: “Only 43 percent of college leaders said their institution was ready to effectively use generative AI to prepare students for the future. The same percentage responded positively when asked if they were preparing faculty for teaching and mentoring with generative AI. When asked about challenges to adopting AI in courses, 93 percent cited faculty unfamiliarity with generative AI, and 84 percent cited lack of training and support.”
So we’re seeing similar patterns among faculty members and campus leaders.
One of the report’s authors, C. Edward Watson, vice president for digital innovation at AAC&U, said he was struck by the fact that 14 percent of respondents have adopted AI literacy as either an institutional or a general-education learning outcome. Among institutions with more than 10,000 students, that figure is one in five.
Watson speculated that AI literacy may become an essential learning outcome in the way that critical thinking is. It will be interesting, he said, to see whether that figure jumps significantly in the next year or so. “This is quick movement in only a two-year span.”
Are you AI literate?
That leads to my next topic. Plenty of professors want nothing to do with AI in their teaching. They feel like these tools get in the way of students developing their critical-thinking skills and of deep learning. But if students don’t learn about AI in their coursework, how will they become AI literate?
This, of course, raises a host of other questions. The big one: What is AI literacy? Given that AI is becoming part of so many of the tech tools we use daily, is it a skill that all faculty members — and students — should have? And does that mean, as Watson wondered, that colleges should make it a foundational learning outcome, much like the ability to think critically and write well? If so, given that AI is so new on the scene, whose responsibility is it to define and teach it? And how should it rank among the many priorities facing college administrators and faculty members?
That’s a topic I’d like to explore more. I want to hear your thoughts and experiences. Please write to me at beth.mcmurtrie@chronicle.com or fill out this Google form.
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