Analysis of teachers’ perceptions of the impact of Generative Artificial Intelligence in higher education

Abstract Given the impact of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) on higher education institutions, it is necessary to update teachers and provide them with the knowledge, skills, and tools required to transform their teaching work. The objective of this pilot study is to examine the effect of the Institutional GenAI Plan implemented at Universidad Alfonso X el Sabio (UAX) in terms of the level of GenAI awareness, the belief in its impact on professions, and the perception of the importance of learning GenAI tools for their integration into student training. A pre-experimental one-group pre-test/post-test design was used with N = 180 university teachers measured twice, in 2023–2024 and 2024–2025. Significant pre-post differences were observed across awareness, perceived professional impact, and the perceived importance of learning GenAI tools (effect sizes reported in Results). Teachers with greater overall awareness of GenAI perceive that GenAI will have a greater impact on students’ professional future and therefore attach greater importance to learning GenAI tools for integration into student training. Considering the results, it is recommended to continue offering training opportunities and promoting educational innovation that enables teachers to update their knowledge and skills related to GenAI. This study uniquely offers one of the first longitudinal analyses at the institutional level of teachers’ attitudes towards GenAI. Nevertheless, results interpretation is limited by the absence of a control group and a low voluntary response rate, which may introduce self-selection bias. Future research should explore the transfer of GenAI-related training to teaching practice and include students’ perspective.