The emergence of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has fundamentally altered the landscape of education. From generating essays and lesson plans to translating languages, analysing data and providing instant answers to complex questions, AI is rapidly becoming an important companion in teaching and learning. In Nigeria, where the educational system continues to grapple with inadequate infrastructure, overcrowded classrooms, limited access to learning resources and uneven teacher availability, AI presents both an opportunity and a challenge. Nowhere is this tension more evident than in the Arts and Humanities, disciplines that have often had to defend their relevance in an increasingly technology-driven world. Researchers and scholars in Arts and Humanities are thought of as the endangered members of the intellectual community in the AI-driven world. I write this piece to make clear that if AI is for humans and by humans, then it cannot replace humans if we put ourselves in the know.

The growing popularity of AI has intensified an old misconception: that disciplines which do not directly produce technological tools or measurable commercial outputs are less valuable. Literature, History, Philosophy, Languages, Religious Studies, Theatre Arts, Linguistics and related fields are sometimes regarded as secondary to Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). Yet, this perception misunderstands the nature of education and, more importantly, the place of human beings within technological development.

AI can process information, identify patterns, generate language and reproduce existing knowledge with remarkable speed. What it cannot adequately replace is the distinctly human capacity to interrogate meaning, evaluate values, understand cultural contexts, exercise moral judgement and ask why certain things should be done in the first place. These are precisely some of the competencies that the Arts and Humanities cultivate.

For Nigeria, therefore, the question should not be whether AI will make the Humanities irrelevant, but how the Humanities can become more relevant in an AI-mediated society. The first step is to move away from an outdated conception of the Humanities as disciplines concerned exclusively with traditional texts and classroom examinations. A contemporary Humanities education must engage with digital culture, artificial intelligence, social media, misinformation, digital communication, cultural preservation and the ethical implications of emerging technologies.

Consider language, for instance. AI systems are increasingly capable of generating sophisticated English texts. This development may appear threatening to students and scholars of English, but it also creates new intellectual possibilities. Linguists can investigate how AI understands Nigerian English, Nigerian Pidgin and indigenous languages. They can examine whether AI reproduces cultural stereotypes, grammatical biases or colonial assumptions. Scholars of communication can study how human interaction changes when people increasingly communicate through AI-assisted platforms. Thus, AI does not eliminate the Humanities; it creates new objects of Humanities inquiry.

Literature is equally positioned to benefit from this transformation. Nigerian literary scholars can examine AI-generated narratives alongside works by Nigerian authors and ask important questions about creativity, authorship, originality and cultural representation. Can a machine truly understand the emotional and historical experiences behind a Nigerian novel? Can an algorithm adequately reproduce the cultural significance of Yoruba proverbs, Igbo idioms or Hausa oral traditions? Such questions are not merely academic. They concern the preservation and transmission of Nigerian cultural knowledge in an increasingly digital world.

History and Philosophy also acquire renewed importance. In an age when AI can generate convincing but inaccurate information, the ability to distinguish evidence from fabrication becomes indispensable. Historical training teaches students to interrogate sources, while Philosophy encourages logical reasoning and ethical reflection. Together, they provide intellectual tools for navigating misinformation, algorithmic manipulation and technological power.

However, Nigerian universities must also confront the uncomfortable reality that AI is already being used by students. Attempts to respond solely through prohibition are unlikely to succeed. Instead, institutions should develop clear and context-sensitive policies on responsible AI use. Students should be taught how to use AI as a research assistant, brainstorming partner, language-support tool and source of preliminary information without surrendering their intellectual responsibility to it.

This requires a fundamental shift in assessment. If students can submit AI-generated essays with minimal effort, assignments that merely test the ability to reproduce information become increasingly ineffective. Nigerian educators should therefore prioritise assessments that demand critical analysis, oral defence, reflection, fieldwork, local examples and personal engagement with evidence. The objective should be to assess what students understand and can defend, rather than simply what they can submit.

There is also a pressing need for digital literacy among Humanities scholars. The future Humanities graduate should not be technologically illiterate. A student of Literature should understand digital publishing; a Linguistics student should be familiar with language technologies; a History student should appreciate digital archives; and a Philosophy student should be able to interrogate the ethical dimensions of algorithms and automated decision-making.

Ultimately, the survival of the Arts and Humanities in Nigeria will depend less on resisting AI than on intelligently engaging it. AI may be able to generate words, but education must teach people how to give those words meaning. It may provide answers, but the Humanities train us to question the assumptions behind those answers. It may imitate creativity, but human beings remain responsible for determining what is valuable, ethical and culturally meaningful.

The Nigerian educational system therefore needs neither an AI-free Humanities nor a Humanities-free AI future. What it needs is an intelligent synthesis. The Arts and Humanities must embrace technological transformation while retaining their central commitment to critical thinking, creativity, culture, ethics and human dignity.

In the age of AI, the most important question is not what machines can do for education. It is what education must do to ensure that humans remain capable of thinking, questioning, creating and making responsible choices in a world increasingly shaped by machines.

(c) 2026 Ganiu Bamgbose writes from Lagos.