Embracing AI to enhance research output and quality

AI has many applications in higher education, offering great potential to accelerate research and innovation. Higher education institutions are adopting AI tools to streamline research processes and improve efficiency. However, concerns around privacy and a lack of standardised regulations may impede progress. Henry Jonathan, assistant professor of health and safety management in the Faculty of Business and Economics at Modern College of Business and Science (MCBS) in Oman, was an early adopter of AI in higher education. Jonathan says the technology holds a lot of promise in enhancing research, but it is not without its drawbacks. 

“AI plays a positive role in research,” says Jonathan. “But we need to understand what its capability is, because there are different applications of AI but not all of them would help us in research.” 

One of AI’s notable benefits is how it can speed up research by assisting scholars in different steps of the research journey, such as optimising data collection and analysis. “It is an excellent tool for analysis,” says Jonathan. “It can help by segregating and filtering data and give us suggestions about where the collected quantitative data doesn't fit into the research model.”

Jonathan emphasises the need to address the issues surrounding AI. “It is programmed to mimic human thinking, but it has many flaws,” he says. For example, it is incapable of critically thinking about the credibility of the data it is presented with. “Privacy is also a matter of concern, because when we use it for research, we cannot be sure about the confidentiality of the information.” A lack of consistency and accuracy are other limitations of current AI models. 

Jonathan says that reliance on AI could limit critical thinking in users. “When we depend too much on AI, we limit our knowledge and the ability to think about something from different perspectives. That’s one important drawback, especially for students,” he says. 

Regulations will be essential in addressing these issues. “There’s a lack of standardised guidelines globally to give us a scope of where or in what context we can use AI,” says Jonathan. “There should be some standardisation of rules and guidelines that clearly outline the appropriate use of AI so it can improve the quality of research.” 

Higher education institutions can guide researchers by identifying the AI applications that can support their research. “There should be a mechanism to help us understand the ways we can use AI tools and define the role of AI in the research journey,” he says.

MCBS’s leadership emphasise that the institution must embrace evolving technologies. It is exploring the possibility of applying AI in every course, and organises workshops and events to help students and faculty members gain AI skills. “We see a lot of good applications from faculty, researchers and students. We have students using AI, not only in computer science courses but also in other disciplines. Many student projects that we see focus on how to use AI for simplifying and optimising logistical processes and for stock market trading, forecasting and predicting,” Jonathan says. 

Additionally, MCBS plays a key role in promoting faculty research by providing institutional funding and creating a supportive environment for research. This has enabled faculty members such as Jonathan to conduct studies on the use of AI tools and their significance in teaching and learning. His research findings have been published in peer-reviewed, indexed journals and book chapters. 

Find out more about Modern College of Business and Science.