PERCEIVED EFFICACY OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND VIRTUAL REALITY IN EFFECTIVE COUNSELLING IN THE TERTIARY INSTITUTIONS IN FEDERAL CAPITAL TERRITORY, ABUJA, NIGERIA

This study examined the perceived efficacy of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Virtual Reality (VR) in enhancing counselling in tertiary institutions in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, Nigeria. The study was guided by three research questions and three hypotheses. It adopted a descriptive survey design. The population comprised of students and counsellors across selected tertiary institutions from which 400 respondents were sampled using stratified random sampling. A structured questionnaire served as the main instrument for data collection and the reliability coefficient obtained through Cronbach’s alpha was 0.82. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics such as mean and standard deviation, while independent samples t-test was employed to test the hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The findings revealed that both AI and VR have significant perceived effects on effective counselling with counsellors rating their efficacy more positively than students. Specifically, AI was found to improve access to information, accuracy of guidance and counsellor workload management, while VR was perceived as useful for immersive simulations, interactive career guidance and anxiety reduction. Thus, challenges such as reduced face-to-face interaction and financial costs were identified. The study concludes that AI and VR hold transformative potential in improving counselling practices in Nigerian tertiary institutions, provided adequate training and infrastructural support are ensured. Recommendation were that Government and school management should invest in digital infrastructure and subsidize the cost of acquiring AI and VR tools to make them accessible and sustainable.