**The rapid expansion of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and digital technologies in higher education is reshaping academic work, teaching practices, assessment models, and institutional cultures on a global scale.** While universities increasingly promote digital transformation and AI integration, these processes are also generating new forms of technological dependence, ethical uncertainty, resistance, and technostress among academic communities. This paper explores cross-cultural perceptions of AI and digital technologies among university lecturers, focusing on how educators negotiate the opportunities, risks, and social implications associated with the growing integration of AI in higher education. The study was developed within the framework of the **StudiesDig Project – Models and Instruments for Transforming Higher Education Systems Through Transnational Multi-Sector Cooperation**, a Horizon programme with funding from the European Commission, and is based on a quantitative survey conducted with **180 higher education lecturers** from **Bulgaria, Romania, Turkey, Portugal, Morocco, and Egypt**. The transnational design of the research enables a comparative and cross-cultural perspective on AI adoption and digital transformation across distinct educational, institutional, and sociocultural contexts spanning Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East. The findings reveal widespread use of digital technologies and AI-related tools in academic work, particularly learning management systems, online collaboration platforms, digital assessment systems, and productivity software. However, the data also expose significant concerns regarding privacy, cybersecurity, system reliability, plagiarism, misuse of AI in assessments, and excessive technological dependence. Across countries, lecturers demonstrate ambivalent attitudes toward AI adoption: although many recognize AI as increasingly unavoidable in teaching and learning processes, they simultaneously express resistance linked to fear of errors, lack of training, distrust of AI systems, uncertainty regarding academic integrity, and broader ethical concerns. The results further suggest that the social meanings attributed to AI in education are shaped not only by technological factors but also by cultural and institutional contexts. Respondents identify different forms of resistance among students, colleagues, and institutions, often associated with lack of digital literacy, insufficient institutional support, concerns about surveillance and monitoring, and tensions between traditional pedagogical cultures and emerging AI-driven practices. The study also identifies perceptions of declining interpersonal communication, reduced social skills, and socially disruptive behavior associated with intensive digital technology use in academic environments. Moreover, lecturers frequently mention technostress and institutional pressures linked to permanent connectivity and digital acceleration. The paper argues that the future of higher education cannot be understood solely through narratives of innovation and technological efficiency. Instead, AI integration in universities should be analyzed as a sociotechnical and culturally embedded process shaped by inequalities in digital literacy, institutional capacities, ethical norms, and local academic cultures. The study contributes to ongoing debates about the future of higher education, human agency in AI-mediated learning environments, and the tensions between digital empowerment and technological dependence in contemporary academic life.

This paper is produced under a research project conducted as part of the StudiesDIG project (Models and Instruments for Transforming Higher Education Systems through Transnational Multi-Sector Links), funded by the European Union under the Horizon Europe

Artificial Intelligence,Higher Education,Cross-Cultural Perspectives,Digital Transformation,Technological Dependence