Perceived Usefulness, Risks, and Future Acceptance of Generative AI in Higher Education

The educational environment has been fundamentally changed with the increasingly rapid development of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI), thus raising expectations that this technology will be integrated into the academic environment, being useful for both teachers and students. This study analyzes students’ perceptions of artificial intelligence tools, which can have both negative and positive aspects on the learning process. This survey was structured into 4 dimensions: perceived usefulness, ease of use, perceived risks and behavioral intention to adopt and integrate them within universities. The research was conducted on a sample of 119 students from both the master’s and bachelor’s cycles, most of the questions being based on the Likert scale. Comparative analysis was made between the 2 study cycles and statistical indicators were described. The results demonstrate that students have a positive perception towards generative artificial intelligence tools. Both the ease of use, as well as the usefulness that students perceive using these tools, had scores well above the neutral level of the Likert scale, with scores of 4.07 and 3.61, respectively. These values indicate that students are perceptive to alternative learning methods. However, there are also high scores on the risk that comes with integrating these tools into academic activities. The ethical implications raise questions among students, as it is very difficult to distinguish plagiarism from original texts. Despite acknowledging certain associated risks, students express a clear intention to integrate these tools into the academic environment. The study contributes to existing literature by providing an empirical perspective on how GenAI is perceived and used in the contemporary academic environment.