BEYOND EFFICIENCY: HOW ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE REDEFINES THE PURPOSE OF TEACHING IN UNIVERSITIES

Abstract

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has rapidly become a defining force in higher education, celebrated for its ability to streamline tasks, personalize learning, and enhance institutional efficiency. Yet, this discourse of efficiency, rooted in optimization and productivity, risks narrowing the moral and intellectual horizons of teaching. This conceptual paper examines how AI is reshaping the philosophical and ethical purposes of teaching in universities. Drawing upon critical pedagogy (Freire, 1970; Giroux, 2011), the ethics of care (Noddings, 2013), and posthumanist perspectives on education (Braidotti, 2019; Knox, 2020), the study explores the tension between technological rationality and humanistic education. The paper adopts a critical interpretive approach, synthesizing existing scholarship, policy discourses, and theoretical reflections to reimagine teaching as an act of meaning-making rather than mere information transmission. Findings suggest that AI does not merely alter pedagogy but reconfigures the very ontology of teaching, shifting educators’ roles from transmitters of knowledge to curators of ethical, relational, and reflective learning experiences. The paper concludes that reclaiming the purpose of teaching requires reframing efficiency as ethical sufficiency, ensuring that the use of AI remains anchored in human values, dialogue, and care.