Generative AI Adoption in Commerce Education: Its Impact on Students' Learning Effectiveness, Critical Thinking, and Career Readiness

Abstract

Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) tools have proliferated rapidly in recent years and are now starting to revolutionize the way teaching and learning happens in higher education institutions. However, there still exists a dearth of empirical studies on the use of GenAI tools among commerce students in India. The current study focuses on evaluating the effects of GenAI adoption among commerce students on their learning effectiveness, critical thinking ability, and career-readiness preparedness, based on the Technology Acceptance Model, UTAUT2, and Bloom’s Taxonomy. Using a descriptive and survey-oriented research methodology, this study explores GenAI tool adoption patterns and their relationships with academic and professional aspects using correlations, regressions, and structural equation modeling. The results reveal that GenAI tool adoption has a significant positive effect on students' perceived learning effectiveness and career-readiness preparedness, and their effect on critical thinking ability is minimal and limited to lower order thinking skills only. Facilitating conditions make an impactful contribution to these relationships. Overall, the study proves that the value of GenAI tools in education is tied to systematic adoption and highlights the importance of designing a commerce curriculum that supports NEP 2020 goals.