Negotiating Artificial Intelligence in Contemporary Pesantren: Knowledge, Religious Authority, and Islamic Educational Traditions
TL;DR
The study demonstrates that AI integration in pesantren is an epistemically and institutionally negotiated process in which technological affordances are selectively incorporated through established structures of knowledge, authority, and ethical formation.
Abstract
The growing use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in education raises important questions for pesantren, where knowledge transmission has historically been grounded in sanad, talaqqi, and adab. This study examines how contemporary pesantren negotiate AI in relation to knowledge, religious authority, and Islamic educational traditions. Employing a qualitative multiple-case study design across three pesantren in West Java, Indonesia, the study involved 60 purposively selected participants: six kiai, six institutional administrators, twelve teachers (ustadz), twenty-four students (santri), six information technology staff, and six alums. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with all participants, observation of educational practices, and document analysis, and were examined through within-case and cross-case analysis. The findings show that AI primarily supports information seeking, translation, clarification, summarization, and preliminary engagement with learning materials rather than replacing established modes of knowledge transmission. A recurring pattern of AI-assisted exploration followed by teacher-mediated epistemic validation demonstrates that informational accessibility does not automatically confer knowledge legitimacy. Sanad, talaqqi, and adab remain central to knowledge validation, while the growing accessibility of AI-generated religious information produces authority negotiation rather than displacing kiai and teachers. Institutionally, the study identified four non-linear and potentially coexisting response patterns: resistance, selective adaptation, integration, and transformation. Building on these findings, the study proposes the Pesantren AI Negotiation Model, which explains AI integration through three interconnected mechanisms (interpretive validation, authority verification, and ethical alignment). The study demonstrates that AI integration in pesantren is an epistemically and institutionally negotiated process in which technological affordances are selectively incorporated through established structures of knowledge, authority, and ethical formation.
