A Review of the hype and hope of AI literacy in UAE higher education
Wafaa ALAKALEEK
Abstract. The expeditious merging of artificial intelligence (AI) in all aspects of life, and specifically in higher education, has made AI literacy a core competency for organizational competitiveness, stakeholders’ readiness, and sustained learning environments. In the context of the United Arab Emirates, promising national agendas for AI and digital transformation have been established, driven by the advocacy of AI literacy policies at university levels across the country. However, an undeniable question still arises about the institutional coherence and sustainability of the current incorporation of AI systems. This paper aims to provide a comprehensive thematic review of the hype and hope for AI literacy in the UAE, emphasizing the pivotal need for a framework in the UAE’s higher education sector. Additionally, to address the associated ethical considerations that arise when higher education deploys AI into its systems. This paper is grounded in the Braun and Clark (2006) thematic model synthesising peer-reviewed scholarly literature, the UAE’s national agendas, and some institutional reports. This review’s findings contribute a preliminary overview of the optimistic role that AI resources are going to play in the UAE’s higher education, as well as a deeper look at the current empirical literature of AI literacy to enhance the substantial understanding of the ethical potentials that AI is going to bring to the table. This paper recommends that higher education authorities must prioritize the implementation of AI ethical frameworks that guide and protect stakeholders, ensure data privacy and ownership, mitigate any potential biases, and ensure teaching and learning equity in higher education. Moreover, this paper recommends increasing the number of methodological studies that incorporate qualitative methodologies to embrace diverse insights, investigate different contextual factors, and illuminate pupils’ experiences with AI resources to uncover the subjectivity and interpretations of these resources.
Keywords
AI Framework, AI Literacy, Ethical Dilemma, Transparency, Equity, Autonomy
Published online 6/20/2026, 9 pages
Copyright © 2026 by the author(s)
Published under license by Materials Research Forum LLC., Millersville PA, USA
Citation: Wafaa ALAKALEEK, A Review of the hype and hope of AI literacy in UAE higher education, Materials Research Proceedings, Vol. 67, pp 900-908, 2026
DOI: https://doi.org/10.21741/9781644904176-122
The article was published as article 122 of the book Climate Action and Sustainability
Content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license. Any further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and DOI.
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