Developing an integrated model to explore key factors influencing university students' behavioral intentions to use ChatGPT in enhancing higher education in the hail region

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is impacting education by introducing innovative ways to enhance teaching and assessment. One notable AI tool is ChatGPT, which has attracted attention for its transformative potential. This study aims to develop a framework to explore factors influencing college students' inclination to use ChatGPT. It examines institutional support, social influence, perceived enjoyment, perceived innovativeness, perceived trust and security, task characteristics, technology characteristics, and individual characteristics. A total of 304 university students participated in the study, and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was used to examine correlations. The PLS-SEM method assessed the strength of outcomes from the model evaluation. Results showed that institutional support, social influence, perceived trust and security, task characteristics, technology characteristics, and individual characteristics positively affected students' intention to use ChatGPT. However, enjoyment and innovativeness did not show significant influence. The model explained 60.8 % of the variance in intentions. These findings emphasize the importance of institutional and peer involvement in promoting AI tool adoption. These findings emphasize the importance of institutional and peer involvement in promoting AI tool adoption. The study reveals that institutional support and social influence are the primary drivers of university students' intentions to adopt ChatGPT, highlighting the critical role of external factors over intrinsic motivators like enjoyment and innovativeness in the context of higher education.