The landscape of AI in Education and Research: Knowledge Users’ Perspectives

The advent of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in all walks of life, notably in education and academic research domain has driven a revolutionary transformation globally, and Pakistan is no exception. AI with its revolutionary drive has opened various untapped avenues for academicians and practitioners, posing certain ethical threats at the same time. The education sector, particularly the higher education sector and the research domain, has now been highly influenced by the use of generative AI and its applications. One strand of research posits that over-reliance on AI use has been crippling the ability of critical thinking of researchers by impacting their cognitive abilities, thus facilitating AI assisted cheating and raising ethical issues, whereas the other mentions that AI as an assistant helps get strenuous tasks done easily. The exploratory two-tier research approach employed in this study aims to address these concerns. The study explores the situation of AI in Pakistani Education system by conducting two Focus Group Discussions with the academics, students and AI specialists. Based on the FGDs, key themes were emerged and they were further triangulated by doing a descriptive survey with the academics and students. The study concludes AI can be a useful partner, if used ethically and in an observant manner. The study stresses upon the capacity building activities and trainings for the usage of AI and generative AI.

1.  INTRODUCTION

Since the introduction of computers, the surge for making technology better for people and improving its  usage for humankind has  led to  the advent of  Artificial intelligence (AI) that is now in the phase of enhancing lives and also replacing many human jobs with its interventions. Since 1950, AI has been predicted to require a few years to reach human intelligence in cognitive and social aspects (Haenlein & Kaplan, 2019), which after 75 years appears as AI is leading most of life spheres. AI is making particular progress in the banking sector, medicine, meteorology, agriculture, education, and research etc. (Adithiyaa, 2024).

The education sector is crucial for people’s well-being and for a country’s development. Particularly the individuals who get higher education require to use their critical thinking and their technical learnings for performing daunting tasks that can help a  nation progress. The mentioned scenario highlights the  importance of education. Alexandara Harry (2025) states that AI has the potential to transform the traditional education, which it is currently doing. It has a tendency to change the means of learning and teaching in an efficient way, using its predictive nature by the use of machine learning and language processing effectively. AI can be helpful in the assessment of students, adaptive learning, personalized learning streams, chatbots, distant and smart learning and even can help in grading the assignments etc. (Adithiyaa, 2024).

The education sector, particularly the higher education sector and the research domain have now been highly influenced by the use of generative AI and its applications.

Generative AI can be revolutionary in the refinement of ideas and literary work of researchers and higher education students but also raises serious questions regarding the accessibility of the generative AI due to digital divide (Yueqiao, 2025), its validity of answers (Kwan, 2025), and the critical thinking ability (Gerlich, 2025). Critical thinking is a significant outcome of higher education and is duly required for the research purposes and deep learning. However, one dangerous aspect of AI is that it may be crippling the ability of critical thinking by impacting their cognitive abilities and helping people in AI assisted cheating (Kwan, 2025), and generative AI ChatGPT and Deepseek etc. are examples of that. Zhai et al. (2021) suggest that the research before 2020 has pointed towards the positive impacts of Generative AI. However, it requires reconceptualization from the academics and understanding of the use of AI ethically. Similarly, García-L´opez (2025) has mentioned, based on a systematic literature review, that the use of Generative AI applications has raised concerns over the compromise of ethics in education and has raised the need for AI regulations. Further, the use of AI in developing countries is widespread and beneficial, but it possesses certain risks due to dodgy digital infrastructure and literacy (Folorunso, et al.2024), and with its risk of impacting cognitive processes, it can be a bigger risk. In a country like Pakistan, the use of Generative AI in education and research fields can be harmful in the long run, if not used properly. The students are committing AI-assisted cheating, the ability of researchers and instructors is not up to date to use AI effectively and ethically, which can raise concerns for the future of AI, research and education. Therefore, this study aims to identify the level of use of AI in the education sector and emphasizes its ethical use and possible regulations in the country. The objectives of the research are.

1. How is Generative AI impacting the education and research in Pakistan/ critical thinking of students and researchers?
2. How is AI raising ethical concerns in education and research?
3. Do we need to regulate AI/ Generative AI to mitigate its risks/ ethical concerns?

2. LITERATURE REVIEW

The advent of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in all walks of life, notably in the academic research domain has driven a transformation globally, and Pakistan is no exception. AI possesses a revolutionary force to change the way research has been conducted, delivered, accessed, and managed so far. This section explores the role of AI in the research and education sectors in Pakistan, with a particular focus on its applications and implications in research.

Currently, AI  has  been  gradually  being  adopted  in  education  and  academic research in Pakistan. The educational landscape varies in Pakistan owing to its various socio-economic factors. Thus, integrating AI  in  education in  Pakistan can  promise multiple opportunities, particularly in research. AI technologies like Intelligent Tutoring Systems have offered one-on-one support to students, simulated human-like interactions with real-time feedback to promise student engagement and academic performance (Choi, et  al.2025; Laksono, et  al.2024). AI  tools  provide adaptive learning platforms for personalized learning experiences, and can be customized as per every individual student needs.  Likewise,  Generative AI  tools  like  ChatGPT  have  streamlined instructional processes in education and research by assisting students and researchers in writing and content generation (Choi, et al.2025; Alali & Wardat, 2024).

Extant literature explores the integration of AI in teaching, learning, and research processes (Majeed, et al.2024) and posits positive impact of the use of AI tools on students’ academic performance in research work, assignments, and overall assessments (Zia, et al.2024). Existing literature captures the teachers’ perspective in terms of the integration of Generative AI (Gen AI) in higher education (Majeed, et al.2024). Though extant research highlights the prospects of Gen AI to enhance the teaching and learning effectiveness, thus, promoting more interaction and engagement in classes. H     owever, serious concerns regarding the ethical use of Gen AI to safeguard students’ cognitive, creative, and analytical abilities have also been raised (Majeed, et al.2024).

Admittedly, AI has revolutionized the research domain tremendously. Data analysis, pattern recognition using machine learning algorithms to identify complex patterns with new discoveries have been fostered with the help of AI (Gonzalez & Hernández, 2024). Similarly, AI automates repetitive research tasks enabling researchers to concentrate more on creative and strategic sides of their work (Gonzalez & Hernández, 2024). However, some ethical concerns such as data privacy, academic integrity, and algorithmic bias have been raised at the integration of AI in education and research (Choi, et al.2025; Alali & Wardat, 2024). The ethical and pedagogical challenges regarding the use of AI tools in research and teaching in Pakistan necessitate to explain the phenomena using the theoretical lens of the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) (Venkatesh, et al.2003), Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) (Davis, 1989) and constructivism and connectivism learning theories (Siemens, 2005). The perceived usefulness (PU) and perceived ease of use (PEOU) are the key drivers ensuring users’ technology acceptance (Davis, 1989). The use of AI tools like chatGPT, Grammarly etc. facilitates the researchers and students to streamline the academic writing, thus reducing workload. However, mal-information, academic dishonesty and over-reliance are the ethical concerns that demar both perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use (Zawacki-Richter, et al.2019). Notably, the use of AI tools is perceived as a challenge to the integrity of research, where critical reasoning and originality of ideas are primarily fundamental in the domains that demand the elements of subjectivity, contextualization and qualitative reasoning (Selwyn, 2019). The expanded version of TAM is the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) that encompasses four key drivers: performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, and facilitating conditions (Venkatesh, et al.2003). The institutional and infrastructural variability in Pakistan  makes this  model  a  better  fit  to  explain  that  exposure and  better  digital infrastructure in urban areas may ensure better effort and performance expectancy. While facilitating conditions such as policy support, training and availability of AI tools and social influence can vary significantly even in public and private research centers in urban areas. Therefore, regulatory clarity at the national and institutional level can streamline the adoption of AI tools in research and education. Likewise, interdisciplinary collaboration among various stakeholders like policy makers, and technologists can help address these potential threats to leverage the potential of AI (Mustafa, et al.2024). These stakeholders can come together to agree upon some unanimous ethical frameworks to address the inherited issues of AI adoption in education and research (Rensburg & Westhuizen, 2024).

The use of AI tools in research is believed to enhance students’ critical thinking, academic abilities, and self-efficacy (Zia, et al.2024). The flip side of AI prevalence in research posits various challenges in Pakistan. The over reliance on AI tools passively engages the users thus, may hinder their deep learning. The superficial learning and the erosion of critical thinking skills (Luckin, et al.2016) stand against the perspective constructivist learning  theory  (Piaget,  1972).  This  theory  posits  that  learning  is  a constructive process built actively on new ideas extracted from past and present knowledge of the learners (Piaget, 1972). This argument can be counter-explained by the theory of connectivism (Siemens, 2005), that discourages learning in silo, proposing that knowledge can be transferred across networks and learning is the capacity of the learners to navigate and grow these networks. Thus, the use of AI tools facilitates access to diverse knowledge resources.

One major issue emerged is the fact that since various faculty members and researchers are not well adept in the use of AI tools, therefore, they are unable to keep pace  with  the  emerging pedagogies. Here  comes the  need  of  faculty development programs to integrate AI responsibly. The need is to resolve some other pressing issues like language barriers and lack of localized content to bridge digital literacy and pedagogical gaps (Qazi, et al. 2020). Similarly, lack of infrastructure and resources poses another challenge to integrate AI optimally into pedagogical and learning processes (Ali, et al.2024), thus resulting in the digital divide, particularly in rural and underserved areas (Khurshid, et al. 2024). With significant investments in AI infrastructure, China and India have extensively adopted and utilized AI in education, unlike Pakistan (Shoukat, 2024). The integration of AI in research demands strategic investment in AI infrastructure and training for researchers to reap the benefits of AI, by enhancing the research capabilities of Pakistani universities. The need is to treat AI strategically as a key industry (Hussain & Rizwan, 2024). Likewise, lack of transparency and fairness can pose the threat to academic integrity (Sain, et al.2024). To ensure the ethical use of AI in higher education, comprehensive policies are indispensable (Sain, et al. 2024). To serve this purpose, AI can play a significant role in evidence-based decision-making in educational policy (Noor , et al. 2025). This can help Pakistan to be a competitive player in the global AI landscape (Hussain & Rizwan, 2024).

A brief stock of literature review posits that ethical concerns raised by the use of AI particularly in research need to investigate qualitatively to get deeper insights from the academicians and  students  in  Pakistan.  This  study  aims  to  serve  this  purpose  by conducting a two tiers research to triangulate the findings of FGDs with the results of the descriptive analysis.