Magic and disruption: A community of practice response to AI in health education

Abstract

Introduction: The rapid emergence of artificial intelligence (AI) has prompted health professional educators to reconsider assessment, academic integrity and the nature of learning. While conceptual and policy responses are growing, little empirical evidence documents how educators adapt pedagogy in real time. This study addresses this gap by examining a grassroots community of practice (CoP) that formed to help educators make sense of AI, navigate uncertainty and redesign teaching and assessment during technological disruption. Methods: A participatory action research approach investigated the activities and impacts of an interdisciplinary, informally organised CoP that met weekly between March 2023 and June 2025. Data included meeting minutes, recorded discussions, interviews and a final focus group. Iterative thematic analysis was undertaken, supported by AI-assisted coding to manage the longitudinal dataset while maintaining researcher interpretation. Twenty-seven educators participated across 2 years, with six contributing to the focus group. Results: Four themes traced the CoP’s pedagogical transformation: (1) Initial concerns and uncertainty: anxiety about academic integrity, ethical risks, workload and the perceived threat GenAI posed to traditional assessment. (2) Getting ideas and insights: psychological safety and interdisciplinary dialogue supported low-stakes experimentation. (3) Impact on teaching: innovative assessment and learning designs emerged, emphasising formative, authentic and “human-in-the-loop” approaches. (4) Reflections on the impact: members shifted from defensive stances to viewing AI as “just another tool”, integrating it into pedagogical reasoning and professional identity. Conclusions: This study extends communities of practice theory by showing how informal, nimble CoPs act as adaptive infrastructures during disruption. Findings offer rare insight into how educators collectively reshape pedagogy, ethical reasoning and identity in response to AI and highlight the value of educator-led CoPs for building AI readiness in health professional education.