Ai literacy and academic integrity in a globalised educational system: A systematic review.

The rapid integration of AI in higher education has revolutionized teaching, evaluation, and learning mechanisms, but at the same time, there are global concerns about the AI-related threats to academic integrity. Background: The increased usage of generative AI in higher education has further fueled the debate on the application of good AI practices and the need for AI literacy to ensure academic integrity in various educational settings. Objective: This systematic review was conducted to identify the definition of AI literacy and its association with AI-related integrity challenges in higher education settings. Methods: The qualitative thematic synthesis was conducted on 29 peer-reviewed articles (2015 to 2025) following the guidelines of the PRISMA 2020 protocol, utilizing literature from prominent scholarly databases. Results: The results of the systematic review indicate that there are various definitions of AI literacy in various settings, and there is no unified definition of AI literacy in learning settings. The results further indicate that there are various AI-related threats to academic integrity in various settings, and the usage of ChatGPT is on the rise, leading to plagiarism and authorship issues in various settings. Regional analysis: The results indicate that there are more studies in the Global North compared to the Global South. Conclusion: The results indicate that there is an association between AI literacy and AI-related integrity challenges in various settings. Implications for future research: The results of the systematic review indicate the need for further research to investigate the effect of AI literacy on good AI practices in various settings.