AI and the Start of 2026—It’s Time for Creative Changes

The thirteenth issue of the newsletter therefore highlights the shift from a defensive stance to actively co-creating the learning process during the AI. From the question how to limit technology to the question how to integrate it to support reflection, authentic tasks, process-based learning, and the development of future competencies.

We’re sharing with you highlights and findings from the last month of 2025 and the first half of January, which offer insight into key trends, strategic decisions by universities, research findings, and initiatives that indicate that in the age of AI, teachers play an even more prominent role—namely, as pedagogical mentors and ethical guides. Let this start of the year be an opportunity for a fresh perspective.

The Microsoft AI in Education Report 2025 is a comprehensive analysis that explores the use and impact of artificial intelligence in education and highlights opportunities and challenges for teachers, students, and institutions. It covers topics such as how AI supports personalized learning, the automation of administrative tasks, the development of competencies, and the improvement of access to educational content, while also emphasizing the importance of ethics, data protection, and the professional development of educators. The report offers practical insights and recommendations for higher education institutions planning strategies to integrate AI into teaching practices and institutional frameworks.

The use of AI in education is shifting from experimentation to strategically planned approaches, where it is becoming part of institutional models of teaching and learning. The focus is on pedagogical concepts that use AI to support reflection, personalized learning, and the development of future competencies.

The podcast “Six AI Trends Shaping Business, Education, and Markets in 2026” is part of the This Week in Business series on the Knowledge at Wharton educational portal at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, where Professor Stefano Puntoni highlights six key AI trends for 2026. He discusses specialized models, agent systems, the development of everyday AI tools, monetization, regulation, and the implications for business education and the future workforce, raising practical questions that are also relevant to higher education strategies.

We came across an article titled 25 predictions about AI and edtech, which presents 25 predictions about future trends in the integration of artificial intelligence into educational technologies and teaching practices. The predictions range from new approaches to curriculum design and personalized learning to the transformation of learning environments, the role of teachers, and ethical challenges. They also offer a broader overview of trends that can help higher education instructors understand how AI is expected to influence the learning experience in the coming years. The article also highlights that a significant part of these changes stems not only from the technology itself but from pedagogical decisions and systemic shifts that AI is driving in education.

We are also sharing an article titled 5 Predictions on How AI Will Shape Higher Ed in 2026, which—through predictions about educational technology and the impact of AI on teaching practices—summarizes the views of several experts on how artificial intelligence will shape higher education in the coming year. The predictions highlight that the strategic use of AI will shift from experimentation to broader institutional approaches, impact measurement, and the development of comprehensive AI strategies; at the same time, however, there may also be growing disappointment and resistance due to the technology’s costs, complexity, and social and environmental implications. This article notes that 2026 will be a pivotal year for the expansion and systematic implementation of practices, aligning technology with organizational goals, and addressing challenges such as tool integration, impact assessment, and the fragmentation of work processes.

A study by the University of Cambridge concludes that traditional note-taking (either on its own or with the support of large language models) is significantly more effective for understanding and long-term retention than simply using LLMs for reading. The results show that traditional learning activities remain crucial for in-depth learning, while generative AI can primarily support initial understanding of the material and student engagement, but cannot replace active cognitive work.

Experts warn that bans and technical controls are not effective. In an article titled You Can’t AI-Proof the Classroom, Experts Say. Get Creative Instead, they point out that bans and attempts to isolate lecture halls and classrooms from artificial intelligence are unsuccessful, and they urge educators to transform teaching approaches to include authentic tasks, process-oriented learning, and reflection. They argue that it is more productive to develop new forms of assessment and pedagogical practices that leverage the advantages of AI, rather than attempting to exclude it. This represents a shift in mindset that offers teachers creative approaches to integrating technology into the learning process and enhancing the quality of student learning.

The article AI can help research have more real-world impact emphasizes that artificial intelligence can significantly accelerate translational research and increase its societal impact, but only if it is used transparently, ethically, and as a support—not a substitute—for human expertise. The authors warn of the risks of overusing AI, such as a decline in critical thinking and the so-called “expertise paradox,” and highlight metacognitive training as a key prerequisite for AI to become a tool that enhances—rather than diminishes—research competencies.

The article titled Measuring University Students’ Satisfaction with Traditional Search Engines and Generative AI Tools as Information Sources presents an empirical study comparing university students’ satisfaction with the use of generative AI tools and traditional search engines as sources of academic information, based on survey data from the United States. It finds that students generally report higher satisfaction with traditional search engines, while those who use generative AI tools more frequently are more likely to express satisfaction with both tools, with many viewing generative AI as a complement to, rather than a replacement for, search engines.

At the end of 2025, several leading universities adopted strategies that incorporate AI competencies as part of graduates’ learning outcomes. AI is no longer merely a tool but a fundamental literacy, according to experts who describe a comprehensive artificial intelligence strategy (known as AI@Purdue) in the Purdue University Report. The Board of Trustees unanimously approved new graduation requirements for all future graduate students. This requirement, which is set to take effect for students entering the program in the fall of 2026, requires students to develop practical skills in using AI tools and understanding their capabilities, limitations, and ethical implications. It is part of the university’s broader effort to make AI an integral element of education, research, and industry collaboration. This is an important step toward preparing graduates who not only understand AI but also know how to apply it meaningfully in their academic and professional contexts, thereby better meeting the needs of the modern labor market.

The report by the Higher Education Authority (HEA) in Ireland presents the first national, values-based framework for the use of generative artificial intelligence in higher education teaching, learning, and assessment. The document does not prescribe a strict policy but offers a set of five fundamental principles—such as academic integrity, inclusion, critical use and AI literacy, and sustainable pedagogy—with the aim of guiding the responsible, transparent, and pedagogically sound integration of artificial intelligence. The framework enables higher education institutions to develop their own practices while ensuring a consistent, coherent, and values-based approach at the system-wide level.

On the blog of the UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning, we came across a post titled The Evolving Right to Education in the Age of Generative AI, which discusses how the fundamental right to education is being reshaped in the context of generative artificial intelligence. It emphasizes that the integration of AI into learning processes must not come at the expense of equity, quality, or human rights, but must instead ensure equal opportunities for all learners and students, support transparency and the responsible use of tools, and strengthen critical thinking skills. The article offers a global perspective and an ethical framework intended to guide university policies and practices in the implementation of AI in teaching and learning, and highlights the need for coordinated international guidelines and support for educators during the transformation process.

Slovenia is also introducing a micro-credential system, which will be formally recognized starting in 2026; in the field of higher education, this represents an important building block for the faster acquisition and recognition of specific competencies and knowledge within the higher education sector. Finance.si reports that the Faculty of Informatics and Computer Science at the University of Ljubljana has already awarded the first micro-credentials for a short educational and training program titled “Fundamentals of Artificial Intelligence for Decision-Makers.” The curriculum and training for this competency model were developed as part of the Artificial Intelligence Skills Alliance (ARISA) project in response to the identification of critical gaps in the artificial intelligence skills and knowledge of corporate decision-makers. This is an important initiative that supports the alignment of education with the needs of the labor market and increases access to targeted training in the field of AI.

EU calls for proposals—which also include doctoral networks and thematic networks of excellence, set to open in early 2026—represent a key opportunity for Slovenian researchers and higher education institutions in the field of artificial intelligence in science.

In December 2025, Slovenia established the Center of Excellence for Artificial Intelligence, which will contribute to the dissemination of AI knowledge, skills, and technological solutions in the economy, the research community, the public sector, and society at large.

A study on the implementation of AI in educational processes at the University of Ljubljana shows that there are promising applications of AI in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and highlights the need to monitor technologies for the sustainable educational use of AI.

Recently, technology companies such as Google, Microsoft, and OpenAI have been intensively developing tools that introduce new instructional formats, ranging from UI-supported audio lessons and podcasts for classrooms to automatically tailored explanations, summaries, and interactive tutors. Such formats can help teachers create more accessible and personalized learning content, while also providing students with tailored learning paths and support outside of traditional class hours.

With the launch of Gemini AI podcast lessons for classrooms, Google is developing a format that supports auditory learning, repetition, and content accessibility. The UI enables the conversion of educational materials into audio explanations, which is particularly useful for flexible learning, students with different learning styles, and as a supplement to traditional lectures—not as a replacement for them. Such approaches do not replace teachers, but can help them expand their teaching tools, improve student engagement, and partially eliminate routine tasks, allowing educators to focus more on reflection, feedback, and high-quality teaching interactions.

By integrating GPT-5.2 into Microsoft 365 Copilot, Microsoft embeds a generative UI directly into the tools that educators and students already use (Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Outlook). This enables faster preparation of teaching materials, summaries, draft explanations, and feedback, while also raising questions of pedagogical judgment regarding what to automate and what to retain as the core of instruction.

OpenAI has also unveiled a new version of the GPT-5. 2, which offers improved language understanding, greater accuracy, and capabilities for generating complex content, as well as features that can help higher education instructors and students adapt and enhance learning materials, summaries, and UI interactions in a more sophisticated and contextually relevant way. GPT-5.2 also offers specialized capabilities to support scientific and mathematical content, enabling the generation of explanations, clarifications, visualizations, and step-by-step solutions—features that can enrich the teaching of challenging STEM subjects and help students understand complex concepts. The OpenAI for Healthcare page demonstrates how generative artificial intelligence can support the healthcare profession through analytics, personalized knowledge, and the automation of information tasks—an example of AI applications that could also be adaptively applied to higher education for the development of specialized learning tools and support systems. The page New ChatGPT Images Is Here describes ChatGPT’s new capabilities for generating and understanding visual content, which opens up possibilities for creating didactic visual explanations, visual summaries, and interactive diagrams that can enrich learning materials in higher education.

Along with the development of new formats, serious ethical challenges are also emerging, as illustrated by the case of Grok X and non-consensual content. This underscores the need for universities to develop clear guidelines, pedagogical goals, and ethical frameworks when implementing generative AI, ensuring that technology serves learning and not the other way around.

As we enter 2026, it is clear that the question regarding artificial intelligence in higher education is no longer whether to incorporate it, but how to co-create it in a meaningful, responsible, and pedagogically sound manner. A review of current trends, research, and practices confirms that the focus is shifting from attempts at control and restriction to strategic reflection on the role of AI in learning, teaching, and research.

The key message here remains that technology in and of itself is not a pedagogical innovation. Educators play a decisive role as designers of learning environments, mentors of critical thinking, and guardians of academic and ethical values. AI can significantly expand the didactic repertoire, increase access to knowledge, and support personalized learning—but only if it is accompanied by clear goals, reflection, and the development of competencies among both students and teachers.

Let 2026 be an opportunity for thoughtful, creative shifts—not for seeking “AI-resistant” classrooms, but for designing learning spaces in which artificial intelligence supports high-quality learning, research, and the social impact of knowledge.

Authors: Eva Škraba, Sanja Jedrinović Čufer, Mateja Bevčič, Eva Kern Nanut, University of Ljubljana Center for the use of ICT in pedagogical process