From tool to trait: AI-use disclosure elevates university students’ evaluations of teachers’ intellectual humility

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is increasingly entering teaching activities in higher education as an important tool that complements human instruction. Prior research has shown that teachers’ AI-use behavior influences trust dynamics within teacher–student relationships. However, it remains an open question whether teachers’ AI usage affects students’ evaluations of teachers’ personalities. In this study, we examined how a university lecturer’s AI-use behavior influenced students’ perceptions of the lecturer’s personality related to intellectual humility. The results indicated that students perceived the AI-using lecturer as more intellectually humble than those who did not use AI. Following the experiment, participants responded to a qualitative survey about why intellectual humility might be more salient for teachers when AI is used. The findings highlight three dimensions of intellectual humility manifested in distinct but connected forms: toward the self, toward students, and toward technology, which may explain why AI-use behavior enhanced students’ perceptions of teachers’ intellectual humility. These results suggest that when teachers transparently incorporate AI as a teaching tool, students are more likely to provide positive evaluations of the instructors in terms of intellectual humility. Taken together, the present study constitutes a meaningful theoretical contribution to advancing research on how AI-use disclosure influences teacher evaluation and education.