From academics to Aidemics: Unpacking the human–AI symbiosis in higher education

The integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into higher education is reshaping both academic roles and organizational practices. This transformation is not merely technical; it also introduces psychological and ethical tensions as academics negotiate new forms of work. This qualitative study advances the concept of Aidemics-academics who efficiently, ethically, and critically employ AI to enhance their professional practice-and examines how AI reconfigures intellectual tasks while challenging traditional academic identities. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with twenty academics (informed by five pilot interviews), we show that Aidemics engage in a symbiotic, human-in-the-loop relationship with AI: they exploit efficiencies for routine tasks, yet safeguard creative and critical work, actively auditing AI outputs and setting clear boundaries of use. Participants also surface structural concerns-framed as AI colonialism-about the potential of AI to entrench power asymmetries and epistemic inequities in global knowledge production. Key challenges include hallucinations, erosion of human agency, and unequal access to AI tools. We argue for policies and professional-development strategies that preserve human agency and ethical judgment while enabling responsible, explainable, and context-sensitive AI use. The findings specify the competencies of Aidemics and outline supports for balanced human-AI collaboration at individual and institutional levels.