Abstract
The increasing adoption of Generative AI (GenAI) in higher education has sparked both enthusiasm and concern. While students widely embrace GenAI for coursework, ethical questions regarding its role in academic integrity persist. This study explores how GenAI influences collaborative learning, particularly in group work, where it has the potential to enhance teamwork dynamics, idea generation, and workload distribution. Drawing on a cross-sectional survey completed by postgraduate management students (N = 722), this study investigates the critical determinants of GenAI adoption in group work. Findings support the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), confirming that perceived usefulness (PU) significantly drives GenAI adoption.
Students who perceived GenAI as useful in enhancing group effectiveness and content elaboration showed higher usage levels. The contribution of perceived ease of use (PEOU) was, however, variable; whereas some students used GenAI with ease, others struggled with prompt engineering and output optimization, causing frustration.
Research also affirms that intent to use GenAI is indicative of actual adoption, with differences by discipline. Although use of GenAi has tremendous benefits, caution is advised on the overuse of the same as it impacts critical thinking ability.