Business
Will AI replace the knowledge part of higher education?
As AI makes information cheaper and more accessible, universities are being forced to redefine their value beyond knowledge transfer.
By Chloë Lane
10 June 2026
In brief
- AI makes information accessible, forcing universities to redefine their value beyond traditional classroom knowledge transfer.
- AI handles information acquisition, but humans provide the critical judgment, context and ethical reasoning defining true knowledge.
- Institutions must prioritise experiential learning and human networks over static content delivery to provide clear student value.
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Since the introduction of AI, knowledge transfer is more readily accessible than ever, yet the cost of higher education is still rising.
A well-prompted AI model can probably explain graduate material more patiently than a lecturer at four in the afternoon, admits Michael Erkens, Rector Magnificus at Nyenrode Business University in the Netherlands.
“If the goal is to transmit a concept clearly, a well-prompted AI tutor is competitive with an average lecture and available at any hour,” he says. “Contact time has become too expensive to spend on information transfer. Students can get the same thing on their phone, often more patiently.”
Why, then, should students pay for higher education when they can get the content for free?
Has knowledge always been cheap?
“Free content is not a new concept. Libraries, open courseware, YouTube, MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses): each was supposed to end the university, and none did. The reason is simple. Students do not pay for content. They pay for what surrounds it,” he says.
The role of a professor, he explains, is to use contact time for what only works with people in a room: judgment under pressure, ethical reasoning on dilemmas with no clean answer and the skill of working with AI rather than against it.
“The old-style lecture, one person at the front reading slides, was already in trouble well before ChatGPT. AI just makes it harder to ignore,” remarks Dr Erkens.
Besides, it’s the bridges universities build that AI can’t replace – between theory and practice, between disciplines that do not normally talk to each other, between generations of leadership, and between business and society more broadly. “Those bridges are not built through content delivery. They are built through people who have crossed them meeting people who are about to,” he says.
At Nyenrode, then, AI is not a threat; just an additional way to acquire knowledge. Students will use AI to explore materials before class to allow them to prepare for case discussions at a depth that was not practical five years ago. Professors teach students how to use AI well, and how to spot when it is wrong. AI models are used by faculty to generate richer teaching materials, to simulate counterparties in negotiation exercises, and in research.
AI can help acquire knowledge, but, as Dr Erkens puts it, “it’s not the holy grail”. It cannot cultivate judgment. The capacity to apply knowledge, know when it has broken down and what to do, is built through dialogue, critique and reflection inside a community of scholars and peers.
“Class time becomes the place for case discussion, live challenge and the Socratic pressure that is uncomfortable in the way good teaching should be. The lecturer shifts from information source to designer of experience: selecting the cases, framing the stakes, pressure-testing student reasoning. A more interesting role for faculty, and a more valuable hour for students,” Dr Erkens says.
Higher education is not about being about to recite facts and formulas, agrees Baback Yazdani, Executive Dean of the UK’s Nottingham Business School. “You can do that by finding a good reference book.”
Nottingham Business School partners with major international companies such as Microsoft and Google, as well as SMEs, to understand what is needed from the graduates of the future when it comes to AI. Each of these companies has reiterated to Yazdani the importance of critical thinking, problem solving and higher levels of human intelligence.
With this in mind, AI will “absolutely not” replace the knowledge function of higher education, he says. In fact, it’s needed more than ever before.
“[Higher education] is about expanding your thought process and learning how to be creative in a given area,” he explains. “It’s about becoming open to new ideas and personal, scientific, cultural and social growth.”
The shifting value of education
Perhaps it’s not that AI is replacing knowledge at all, but more we are misusing the word ‘knowledge’. According to Matt Offord CMBE, Senior Lecturer in Experiential Leadership Education at Adam Smith Business School in the UK, people tend to use words like data, information and knowledge interchangeably when the reality is that they are all different.
Data is simply observable differences in the world, while information is data that has been organised and processed. Knowledge, however, needs to be true, actionable and contextualised.
The acquisition of information does not constitute knowledge, he explains, so it would be more accurate to say AI can replace – to some extent – traditional information acquisition.
“Only humans can create knowledge because only humans know what is true, understand context and how knowledge can be used for action,” he says. “In my classes, I point this out to students. I tell them to use AI for the mundane organisation and reorganisation of data, but to use their own wonderful, sophisticated brains to create knowledge.”
While it may appear that AI can replace traditional knowledge acquisition, this is very different to learning. The value of universities, then, is to teach students how to learn, and how to think critically. “How to elevate their thinking beyond anything that a machine is capable of,” says Dr Offord.
“The broader trend is a transition from ‘what you know’ to ‘how you think’,” says Himanshu Rai, Director of the Indian Institute of Management, Indore (IIM Indore).
Ten years ago, higher education institutions focused heavily on delivering content through lectures, emphasising memorisation and standardised assessments. Today, AI can handle much of this information work, shifting the value of education towards higher-order skills.
“Education is becoming more experiential, project-based and adaptive, moving away from static knowledge delivery towards active intellectual development,” he says.
Several of IIM Indore’s courses already include simulations and role-plays, where students are encouraged to enhance their creativity using AI. Going forward the hope is to evolve lectures into interactive sessions focused on debate, problem-solving, and collaboration.
Choosing between AI and higher education
For those trying to choose between self-learning with AI and a degree, Dr Rai says it largely depends on the individual. Students who possess strong self-discipline, clear goals and the ability to think critically about information will find AI-based learning highly effective. Whereas those who struggle with consistency and direction will find that higher education provides structure, accountability and access to mentorship – all of which will help them progress.
On top of this, learners will gain recognised credentials and a valuable social network. “A balanced approach is most effective,” advises Dr Rai, “using AI as a powerful tool to enhance learning while benefiting from the structure and credibility of formal education.”
INSEAD Professor of Technology and Operations Management and Dean of Executive Education, Sameer Hasija, says that one of higher education’s roles now is to help students learn how to reinvent themselves and their organisations.
As part of a forecasting exercise, executive education participants at French-based INSEAD are given access to all the information they might need to make a specific business decision, but they are deliberately left with uncertainty. “It was not a decision that can be codified. It required human judgment,” he says. “The information that helped them calibrate the uncertainty was provided.”
As these exercises show, human judgement is still needed, even if knowledge can be sought through AI.
Defining the purpose of higher education
In 2026, AI is higher education’s most important competitor. It forces higher education professionals to confront the value of a degree. Knowledge acquisition alone is no longer a unique selling proposition, and would-be students are starting to recognise this.
Universities and business schools must offer something that students cannot easily access on their own. For some, this is structure and discipline. For others, it’s a strong alumni network, work experience, or critical thinking skills.
The pressure is building. More than ever, students are weighing up the return on investment, and higher education institutions need to be clear what this is.
MEET THE AUTHOR
Chloë Lane is a gold-standard NCTJ-trained journalist specialising in higher education. A former Content Editor for QS, Chloë has a wide range of experience writing articles for a variety of B2B and B2C publications about topics related to business schools, universities, careers and academic research.