<p>The uncontrolled utilization of Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools among higher education students has incited debates about their ethical use, particularly in relation to academic integrity. This qualitative study closely investigates how students engage with AI tools in their academic work and the strategies they uphold to ensure and maintain ethical academic practices. Moreover, it explores how Moroccan university professors employ AI in their work and how they guarantee academic integrity while teaching and assessing students’ performance. Reflective reports from fifty-one Moroccan master’s students and twenty EFL professors were systematically coded and analyzed using thematic analysis. The findings of this study show that unethical and irresponsible use of AI tools can pose threats to academic integrity, including issues of plagiarism and academic dishonesty. Both students and professors acknowledge the wide risks associated with AI misuse and over-reliance on these tools, which can eventually undermine creativity and originality. Insights from this study, additionally, reveal the participants’ advocacy for AI literacy programs and the need to rethink traditional assessment to assure ethical AI use in academia and fair evaluation of students’ competencies. The findings of the present study contribute to the ongoing discussion on the risks and benefits of AI in education, accentuating the importance of developing institutional policies alongside AI governance and ethics programs in order to preserve academic integrity, while maximizing the pedagogical upsides of AI.</p>