ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE LITERACY AND ITS INFLUENCE ON RESEARCH SKILLS DEVELOPMENT AND INNOVATION CAPACITY AMONG BUSINESS EDUCATION STUDENTS IN NIGERIA

Abstract

This study investigated the influence of artificial intelligence (AI) literacy on research skills development and innovation capacity among Business Education students in Nigeria. The study was guided by two objectives, with corresponding research questions and hypotheses formulated to direct the investigation. A descriptive survey research design was adopted, with a population of 12,000 undergraduate business education students across public universities in Nigeria. Using multi-stage sampling, a sample of 400 students was selected, while 380 valid responses were analyzed. Data were collected with a structured questionnaire titled Artificial Intelligence Literacy, Research Skills Development, and Innovation Capacity Questionnaire (AILRSDICQ), validated by experts and tested for reliability, yielding an overall Cronbach’s alpha coefficient of 0.81. Descriptive statistics (mean and standard deviation) were used to answer the research questions, while simple linear regression tested the hypotheses at the 0.05 significance level. Findings revealed that AI literacy significantly and positively influenced students’ research skills development, enhancing their critical and creative thinking, confidence, and effective use of AI tools. Similarly, AI literacy was found to have a strong positive relationship with students’ innovation capacity, equipping them with creativity, problem-solving abilities, and entrepreneurial readiness. However, the study also noted moderate institutional adoption of AI by lecturers and infrastructural challenges that limit full-scale implementation. It was concluded that AI literacy is essential for fostering both research competencies and innovation capacity among business education students in Nigeria. The study recommended curriculum integration of AI literacy, lecturer capacity building, infrastructural support, and ethical orientation to maximize the transformative potential of AI in higher education.