Artificial intelligence (AI) has been playing a vital role in all life domains. A striking example is AI effective revolution in health and educational services during the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, this systematic literature review investigates how AI impacts higher education (HE) by focusing on its impact on education quality, the learning and teaching process, assessments, and future careers. This review uses a systematic qualitative research method. The data is collected in a systematic review of academic articles on AI impact on HE from 1900 to 2021 from the Web of Science, Scopus, and ERIC. The process went through a systematic inclusion and exclusion procedure based on date, language, reported outcomes, setting and type of publications. Articles selected were screened via Rayyan Software and coded using excel based on the following themes: education quality, learning and teaching, assessments, future careers, and ethics. The total number of articles included is 56. The results vindicate that AI plays an efficient role in providing better education quality services, practical learning/teaching, and assessments approach for a better future career. Likewise, AI impacts future employment, which entails that HE institutions should incorporate more AI to have better graduates that meet the future market requirements. However, studies on AI impact assessments, ethics and future careers are limited and require further investigation.