How the GenAI Revolution Shapes Opportunities for Higher Education: The Perceptions of the Israeli Academic Community

Abstract

Between 2020 and 2025, Israel experienced four major events that affected its higher education system: COVID-19, the social protest and judicial reform, the October 7 Israel–Hamas war, and the GenAI revolution. This article presents findings from the seventh round of a three-year Delphi survey, aimed at identifying the impacts (losses and gains) of each event on Israeli higher education, from the perspective of academic and administrative staff. In this round, we examined whether each event was perceived as an opportunity or threat to higher education in Israel and assessed its impact on the losses and gains identified in previous rounds. Our findings show that the GenAI revolution is perceived as the opportunity with the highest potential to impact higher education in Israel, specifically through two gains: improving teaching and learning formats and designing study programs aligned with labor market needs. These results suggest that leveraging opportunities presented by the GenAI revolution may mitigate risks to higher education. In Israel, the four events that shook higher education in quick succession may be seen as springboards for renewal. Globally, the coming years will reveal whether universities can turn the GenAI revolution into an opportunity by enhancing the gains of improving teaching and learning formats while adapting the study programs they offer to the labor market.