Artificial Intelligence: Objective or Tool in the 21st-Century Higher Education Strategy and Leadership?

Since the launching of ChatGPT (generative) AI has been developed so much and fast that it has entered higher education (HE) and higher education institutions (HEIs). The article is meant to help HE(Is) how to deal with AI strategically and in leadership. It investigates which influences AI and the use of AI tools is having on HE(Is). Therefore 4 research questions are formulated: how does AI and AI tools influence HE(Is) in its mission, organization and context; should AI and its applications then be regarded as an strategic objective or only as a tool to realize the strategy; how is AI and the use of AI tools, as developed and described in an AI strategy, best managed to be adopted and integrated in an effective and responsible way, and finally which influence does AI and its tools have on the leadership and culture? In order to answer those questions, the article describes first our contemporary times, and the leadership needed, then delves into the history of the development of AI and its tools and investigates the current and future attitudes towards, degrees of implementation, and uses of AI and its tools among the internal and external stakeholders of HE(Is). The findings result from a global literature study of international surveys and 2 case studies. The selection is based on topical usefulness, international scope, (statistical) relevance and quality of research in general. In this way the article aims to help to develop an AI strategy and thus can be read as a policy paper underpinned by a meta-analysis. The main results are that, although the use of AI in HEIs is divided, the effective and responsible adoption and integration of AI is a new strategic objective in order to help to realize HE’s three-fold mission in a well-planned and managed way asking for a visionary leadership and a clear policy framework and guidelines, in which the words transparency, responsibility and critical thinking link AI use with an enhancement of unique human competences such as critical thinking.