Smarter Chatbots, Strong Adoption: Analyzing the Key Drivers of Adoption Intention in Indian Higher Education

Chatbots powered by artificial intelligence are becoming a part of higher education, supplementing teaching and learning as well as student services. Nevertheless, there is only limited evidence regarding the factors influencing students’ intention to use these technologies in the Indian higher education context. The influence of performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence and perceived trust on students’ intention to adopt artificial intelligence-based chatbot. This study adopted a quantitative research design using a self-administered, structured questionnaire administered to students of Pondicherry University. For data analysis, 477 valid responses were analyzed through IBM SPSS Statistics and SmartPLS after screening. The results demonstrate that performance expectancy was the strongest predictor of chatbot adoption intention, suggesting students are likely to adopt chatbots when they see obvious academic and learning gains. Social influence, perceived trust, and perceived intelligence also significantly and positively impact adoption intention, whereas effort expectancy does not significantly affect students' behavioral intention, implying that ease of use may be less important for digitally literate learners. This study recommends that educational institutions should focus on developing chatbot system programs with high efficiency, elegance and academic aptness while promoting their usage through institutional initiatives alongside peer influence. Combining the factors of the Technology Acceptance Model with artificial intelligence-specific features provides this study with a holistic view and practical advice to increase student acceptance and intent to engage. Keywords: students; Chatbots; trust; adoption intention