Use of Artificial Intelligence in Higher Education in Guatemala: Student Perspectives and Ethical–Pedagogical Implications

The integration of artificial intelligence (AI) tools into Latin American higher education is advancing at a pace that outstrips institutional response capacity. Guatemala is neither an exception nor an ordinary case: its university system combines a public institution of national scope with private universities of very different profiles, which allows examination of whether AI adoption reproduces or modifies the sector's structural inequalities. This article presents the results of a cross-sectional survey administered to 190 students from Universidad Francisco Marroquín (UFM, n = 108) and Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala (USAC, n = 82), aimed at describing patterns of use, perceptions of academic impact, and ethical-pedagogical concerns. Some 92.1% of participants report some use of AI, and 94.2% perceive improvements in academic performance, with relevant inter-institutional differences: regular use at UFM reaches 74.1% versus 43.9% at USAC, and comparative valuation of AI courses is consistently higher at the former institution (mean = 8.97 vs. 7.54 out of 10). Ethical concerns—collected through a multiple-selection item—show that technological dependency (57.9%) and plagiarism (52.1%) are the most prevalent. The data suggest that AI has already become part of everyday academic practice before institutions have articulated pedagogical or normative frameworks for its governance.