Innovation at the Edge of Chaos: Frictions in the Education Ecosystem in the Age of GenAI

This paper investigates how universities are approaching the integration of Generative AI (GenAI)\r\nwithin teaching practices, focusing on the ongoing transformation of the broader educational service\r\necosystem. Drawing from a qualitative, exploratory study grounded in the Gioia methodology, we\r\nanalyze institutional policies, experiential practices, and stakeholder perceptions—along with reflexive\r\ninsights from an AI agent (ChatGPT)—to explore how GenAI is framed, encouraged, or restricted.\r\nWhile universities engage in multiple missions—teaching, research, and third mission—this study\r\ndeliberately focuses on teaching, a domain where contradictions are most visible, and where the\r\ntensions triggered by GenAI unfold with greater immediacy, according to both faculty and students\r\nthat have been interviewed. The paper argues that the higher education service ecosystem is\r\napproaching a state of “edge of chaos,” a condition of free complexity in which roles, norms, and value\r\ncreation practices are being redefined or the ecosystem will collapse. The contribution offers\r\ntheoretical and managerial insights on how universities might navigate this liminal state to remain\r\nrelevant and generative actors in the future education ecosystem.