AI-powered education: Driving entrepreneurial spirit among university students

Abstract

This study explores the influence of artificial intelligence (AI) on the entrepreneurial mindset and intentions of university students by utilizing a comparative approach anchored in the technological acceptance model (TAM) and the theory of planned behavior (TPB). The authors investigated how perceived values, perceived usefulness, and perceived ease of use of AI tools change students’ attitudes and intentions toward entrepreneurial learning. The prime novelty of this study lies in its comparative analysis of the effectiveness of AI tools in entrepreneurial education before and after their implementation. The data were collected from recognized institutes of the Higher Education Commission based in Lahore and Islamabad, Pakistan. We employed a two-stage, time-lagged data collection approach. The initial phase (T1) involved the participation of 275 entrepreneurship students, followed by a second collection (T2) of 234 responses suitable for analysis. The data were analyzed and compared in a two-stage process (before and after) through partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). The study revealed that artificial intelligence tools embedded in teaching methods dramatically improved students' entrepreneurial attitudes and learning by offering useful and automated solutions. It further concluded that AI serves as a dynamic and effective educational tool for shaping entrepreneurial intentions, thus offering actionable insights for core curriculum development in academia. Finally, this study contributes significantly by bridging the gap in the literature on the direct impact of AI on cultivating an entrepreneurial spirit among university students.