When Knowledge Is Everywhere, What Do We Need Educators For?
AI may transform how knowledge is delivered in medical education, but it makes the uniquely human work of developing judgment, reflection, relationships, and leadership more important than ever.
What happens to the role of the educator when knowledge is no longer scarce?
In Is AI replacing faculty? Rethinking faculty roles in medical education, Rebekah Cole examines how artificial intelligence is changing the role of faculty in medical education. As AI increasingly provides explanations, practice questions, feedback, and performance insights, the traditional role of faculty as primary transmitters of knowledge is shifting.
But the author argues that this does not make faculty less important. It makes different aspects of their expertise more important.
AI can help deliver information and identify patterns in performance. It is much less able to cultivate the human capabilities that underpin excellent healthcare: judgment, ethical reasoning, professional identity, relational integrity, and the ability to navigate ambiguity.
Cole describes an evolving faculty role that is increasingly centered on:
Coaching: helping learners interpret experiences and performance data
Mentorship: supporting professional identity and development
Judgment: helping learners determine when to trust, question, or challenge AI-generated information
Ethical guidance: navigating responsibility and accountability when technology becomes part of clinical decision-making
Reflection: helping learners make meaning from experience and develop the capacity to adapt
This also has important implications for leadership development.
If AI can increasingly provide information, the value of leadership education cannot simply be the transfer of more knowledge. The deeper work is helping people think, reflect, exercise judgment, build relationships, act with integrity, and lead through uncertainty.
That makes educators' developmental role more important, not less.
Reflection Question
As AI changes what learners can access on their own, what should we be doing differently to develop the judgment, character, and leadership capabilities they cannot simply download?
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