Which of the following faculty tasks are examples of AI augmentation, as opposed to AI replacement? (Select all that apply.)
The correct responses are:
- Drafting a professional email to a university administrator.
- Summarizing a long, technical document to identify its key themes to help determine whether it could be included in the course materials.
- Generating and editing a set of formative quiz questions based on a lecture.
AI augmentation happens when technology acts as a supportive assistant rather than completely taking over a job. In the three correct examples, the educator stays fully in control of the final outcome. Whether you are drafting a routine email, condensing a dense academic text to see if it fits your syllabus, or building a quick lecture quiz, the AI simply speeds up the initial groundwork. The professor still applies their own expertise to review, refine, and approve the material before it goes anywhere.
On the other hand, letting a system autonomously grade a complex qualitative research paper and submit the final scores represents AI replacement. That completely hands-off approach removes the instructor’s critical thinking, personal feedback, and professional judgment from a fundamental teaching duty. True augmentation keeps the human firmly at the center of the process, using the software merely to reduce the heavy lifting of daily administrative and prep work.