Business Education in the Era of Artificial Intelligence: Cultivating Critical Thinking and Digital Citizenship

Abstract In the era of Artificial Intelligence (AI), business education must evolve to equip students with critical thinking skills and responsible digital engagement necessary for success in a technology-driven world. This study examined the role of business and entrepreneurship education programme in promoting critical thinking and digital citizenship among undergraduates in universities in South-South, Nigerian. The study adopted a descriptive survey research design, targeting a population of 81,230 undergraduates enrolled in business and entrepreneurship education programmes across thirty-two accredited universities in South-South, Nigeria. Where the multistage sampling technique was used to select sample size of 438 second year (200 level) students across 6 selected universities using a self-structured questionnaire that was validated by three experts. The questionnaire yielded a reliability coefficient score of 0.74 and 0.76 for sections B and C subscales respectively. The data obtained in the study was analyzed using descriptive and ANOVA statistics. Findings revealed that while business education curricula address critical thinking to a moderate extent (M = 2.59/4.00), there is a gap in the extent of integration of critical thinking to meet the demands of the AI age (M = 2.13/4.00), hence, it is not comprehensive enough. Furthermore, the promotion of digital citizenship among students was found to be low (M = 2.43/4.00), with gaps in areas such as digital responsibility, online ethics, and awareness of digital rights. The study concluded that critical thinking development remains largely theoretical, with limited practical application in AI scenarios, hence, significant improvements are needed to fully align with the evolving digital landscape. Based on the findings, it was recommended that Nigerian universities should revise the business education curriculum to explicitly integrate critical thinking components relevant to AI technologies. Additionally, universities should be mandated to implement structured programmes that promote digital citizenship, focusing on ethical digital behaviour, privacy, and online accountability.