Exploring The Influence Of Ai Upskilling And Reskilling On Research And Innovation In Pakistani Universities: The Mediating Role Of Institutional Capacity

The aim of the study is to explore the relationship between essential elements that shape Artificial Intelligence (AI) reskilling and upskilling in education and research output at public sector universities in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK), Pakistan. More specifically, it studies how the development of an AI curriculum, institutional capacity, industry collaboration, funding for AI activities, and AI training programs affect research and innovation outcomes. It adopts a quantitative research design that is based on the Resource-Based View and involves a structured survey for collecting primary data from faculty members and researchers in various universities in KPK. The study thus creates a theoretical model that gives indications of how these variables interact and relate to research. This proposed model shall serve as a conceptual framework for encouraging investment in the strategic areas of education and collaboration to develop research capacities in the area of reskilling and upskilling AI. Such strong implications are found in this study by policymakers, educational leaders, and researchers regarding developing robust AI curricula, partnership with the industry, and an increase in funding for AI programs. It also indicates the need for much actual involvement of the stakeholders to propel innovation in academia research. For the future, the model has been proposed for empirical verification besides longitudinal studies to find out changes with time, comparative studies of different educational contexts, and qualitative investigations to gain deeper insights from stakeholder experiences. The future research agenda will thus contribute in part to understanding the overall picture related to the dynamics between AI education and research output, which will help institutions further modify their practices as per the pacing technical revolution. Keywords: AI curriculum development, AI training programs, institutional capacity, industry collaboration, funding for AI initiatives, research output, innovation, public sector universities