The fear of Artificial Intelligence (AI) infiltrating university lecture halls has generated more anxiety than excitement.
As ChatGPT and other tools become accessible, universities report a sharp rise in students using AI to complete assignments – often without disclosure and without understanding the implications.
Lecturers and university academic centres now find themselves having to scramble to revise assessments, rewrite policies and rebuild trust in academic integrity.
There is fear of AI as it challenges how universities evaluate learning, what they consider original work and proof of skills and competencies. While much of the conversation is focused on what AI is doing to education, we should be asking a more important question: What can AI do for education?
Leadership development experts have been asking this question over the last few years while carrying out experiments on how AI can be used for mentorship, coaching and as a simulation tool by school principals. These experiments show that the same technology that is feared can be leveraged to transform leadership at schools.
However, this can only happen when AI is employed intentionally and when lecturers work with students to develop critical skills that support their learning, growth and development as leaders.
The introduction of Autonomous AI (also called Agentic AI, such as Microsoft Pilot) runs independently to design, execute and optimise workflows with little human intervention. Such AI functions are useful since they free school leaders from the high administrative workload, which helps them structure their time more strategically.
These are helpful developments, and so, preparing school principals at present requires the exploration of a different frontier – one that explores the use of AI to provoke self-reflection, model coaching conversations and deepen emotional awareness.
Through structured prompts, dialogue simulations and reflection tools, AI can take on the role of a trusted partner and non-judgmental sounding board. It can walk a leader through a difficult decision, surface ethical blind spots, offer tailored feedback on communication, tone and policy congruence as needed.
The benefits of AI are many and various. Research shows that school leaders want support that is timely, intelligent and available 24 hours, seven days a week. This is impossible for a human coach, but possible for an AI tool.
School principals require support in real time and AI can make this possible. AI tools sharpen their thinking and strengthen their leadership identity. While it does not always offer perfect answers, it does often ask better questions.
Universities and leadership development programmes are still assessing leadership development and potential in outdated ways with reliance on theoretical essays, written exams, case studies and checkbox competence frameworks.
This says very little about how someone leads in the real world. In the age of AI-generated texts, these outdated assessment types are not valuable anymore. While one can ask AI to write an essay, AI cannot handle clashes with staff, make decisions based on empathy and accountability or adapt when things change instantaneously. So, in university classrooms, lecturers must develop authentic assessments so that leaders are developed in action.
When leadership skills are assessed authentically, what matters is a leader’s capacity to navigate tension, hold uncertainty and act with integrity.
The leaders that are being developed today will, in turn, manage teams, schools and systems where AI is everywhere. So, the future of leadership is not only in leaders working with people, but in collaborating with algorithms, interfacing with data-driven systems and making decisions in environments where AI is an invisible but powerful force. This means that AI literacy is not optional in university settings; it must be embedded as a core leadership skill.
- Yassim is an associate professor at the department of education leadership and management at UJ
OPINION | AI cannot replace leaders, but can expand their thinking
Image: 123RF
The fear of Artificial Intelligence (AI) infiltrating university lecture halls has generated more anxiety than excitement.
As ChatGPT and other tools become accessible, universities report a sharp rise in students using AI to complete assignments – often without disclosure and without understanding the implications.
Lecturers and university academic centres now find themselves having to scramble to revise assessments, rewrite policies and rebuild trust in academic integrity.
There is fear of AI as it challenges how universities evaluate learning, what they consider original work and proof of skills and competencies. While much of the conversation is focused on what AI is doing to education, we should be asking a more important question: What can AI do for education?
Leadership development experts have been asking this question over the last few years while carrying out experiments on how AI can be used for mentorship, coaching and as a simulation tool by school principals. These experiments show that the same technology that is feared can be leveraged to transform leadership at schools.
However, this can only happen when AI is employed intentionally and when lecturers work with students to develop critical skills that support their learning, growth and development as leaders.
The introduction of Autonomous AI (also called Agentic AI, such as Microsoft Pilot) runs independently to design, execute and optimise workflows with little human intervention. Such AI functions are useful since they free school leaders from the high administrative workload, which helps them structure their time more strategically.
These are helpful developments, and so, preparing school principals at present requires the exploration of a different frontier – one that explores the use of AI to provoke self-reflection, model coaching conversations and deepen emotional awareness.
Through structured prompts, dialogue simulations and reflection tools, AI can take on the role of a trusted partner and non-judgmental sounding board. It can walk a leader through a difficult decision, surface ethical blind spots, offer tailored feedback on communication, tone and policy congruence as needed.
The benefits of AI are many and various. Research shows that school leaders want support that is timely, intelligent and available 24 hours, seven days a week. This is impossible for a human coach, but possible for an AI tool.
School principals require support in real time and AI can make this possible. AI tools sharpen their thinking and strengthen their leadership identity. While it does not always offer perfect answers, it does often ask better questions.
Universities and leadership development programmes are still assessing leadership development and potential in outdated ways with reliance on theoretical essays, written exams, case studies and checkbox competence frameworks.
This says very little about how someone leads in the real world. In the age of AI-generated texts, these outdated assessment types are not valuable anymore. While one can ask AI to write an essay, AI cannot handle clashes with staff, make decisions based on empathy and accountability or adapt when things change instantaneously. So, in university classrooms, lecturers must develop authentic assessments so that leaders are developed in action.
When leadership skills are assessed authentically, what matters is a leader’s capacity to navigate tension, hold uncertainty and act with integrity.
The leaders that are being developed today will, in turn, manage teams, schools and systems where AI is everywhere. So, the future of leadership is not only in leaders working with people, but in collaborating with algorithms, interfacing with data-driven systems and making decisions in environments where AI is an invisible but powerful force. This means that AI literacy is not optional in university settings; it must be embedded as a core leadership skill.
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