Abstract

Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly transforming the academic landscape in the era of Education 4.0. This study scrutinizes educators’ perspectives on integrating AI tools into academic practices. Following a mixed-methods approach and drawing upon the theoretical underpinnings of the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), this research gathered data through semi-structured interviews and survey questionnaires involving fifty academics from diverse disciplines and universities across seven countries. The findings revealed diverse opinions regarding the roles of AI in education. While some academics highlighted the potential of AI tools to accelerate students’ learning, others expressed concerns about the possible adverse effects of AI on students’ study habits, morality, and creativity. In addition, the respondents raised concerns about various AI tools that potentially assumed various academic roles traditionally played by human educators. Furthermore, ethical issues—including privacy, security, accountability, and fairness—emerged as critical discussion points. The analytical findings of the study highlight the differences between the academic contexts of Bangladesh and that of other countries in this respect. It offers implications and recommendations for educational policies, practices, and research, underlining the importance of fostering awareness, teacher training, and government support to enable academics to adopt AI tools effectively and ethically in academic practices in Bangladeshi higher education, besides the wider applicability of some of the recommendations in other developing and least-developed countries with similar educational contexts.