Towards promoting innovation in inclusive education: behavioural intention of teachers towards adopting AI to teach students with learning disabilities in the UAE

Abstract The integration of artificial intelligence (AI) in education offers significant potential for identifying and supporting all students, including those with learning difficulties. Although discussions on the potential of AI to advance the learning of students are ongoing, AI usage among teachers to leverage it in the teaching of students with learning disabilities in nonwestern contexts, such as the United Arab Emirates, is unresearched. The study was guided by a unified theory of acceptance and use of technology to examine teachers’ intentions toward adopting AI tools to enhance educational outcomes for students with learning disabilities in the UAE. Using a quantitative research approach, a structured survey was completed by 244 teachers from both public and private schools. The data were subjected to analyses, such as structural equation modelling, to test the structural validity of the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology. Moreover, confirmatory factor analysis, means, multivariate analysis of variance and path analysis were computed to explore the variables that impact the behavioural intentions of teachers. The findings provide support from instruments used to measure intentions towards AI. While social influence positively predicts intention, effort expectancy makes a negative but significant contribution to the variance in intention (social influence: β = .32; effort expectancy: β = − .26, R 2 = 0.14). The implications of the study for AI policy development and teacher development are discussed.