The role of entrepreneurship education in fostering entrepreneurial intention: Exploring the effect of artificial intelligence integration

This study advances understanding of how entrepreneurship education and the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) shape students’ personal innovativeness, self-efficacy, and entrepreneurial intentions within the framework of Transformative Learning Theory (TLT). Drawing on data from 329 undergraduate students in Vietnam and employing Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM), the analysis validates the proposed model and highlights several key outcomes: entrepreneurship education exerts a strong positive influence on both self-efficacy and personal innovativeness, which in turn mediate its effect on entrepreneurial intention; AI integration significantly moderates the impact of entrepreneurship education on cognitive transformation and entrepreneurial intention despite exerting a weak direct effect. Collectively, these findings expand the discourse on entrepreneurship education by positioning AI as a catalytic enabler that strengthens the psychological pathways through which education fosters entrepreneurial behavior, contributing theoretically by extending TLT to the context of AI-augmented learning and practically by offering insights for policymakers and educators seeking to design more effective entrepreneurship education programs that enhance the robustness of the entrepreneurial ecosystem and encourage greater engagement in entrepreneurial activity.