Digital technologies and artificial intelligence in higher education: analysis of the degree of influence of their use

Abstract

The cornerstone of innovative transformations is not the idea of constant renewal as an end in itself, but practically justified and expedient development, part of which is currently the expansion of the use of digital technologies. The spread of modern information technologies, including artificial intelligence, should be justified by assessments of the effectiveness of its implementation, which, for example, are surveys of organizations using modern technologies in their activities, or other methods of evaluating effectiveness that characterize a generally rational approach. The paper describes the results of the use of digital technologies (including artificial intelligence) in Russian institutions of higher education according to surveys of organizations of this profile in 2022. Comparative analysis has shown that the higher education sector is at the forefront of companies using the most advanced technologies, which, however, does not apply to the field of training highly qualified personnel. However, along with a fairly high level of use of AI in the higher education sector, the fact of low effectiveness of the use of artificial intelligence has been established: almost 4/5 organizations in the field of OKVED "higher education" noted the complete absence of a positive effect from the introduction of digital technologies in their activities. A similar pattern is observed in the higher education training sector. This fact is associated with the low quality of the preliminary analysis of the rationality of the application and choice of the direction of the introduction of new digital technologies, as well as the overestimation of their innovative importance. It is proposed to take a more cautious and reasonable approach to the issue of implementing certain digital solutions in order to eliminate the likelihood of mass rejection of organizations from their use due to low expediency and high implementation costs.