AI-enhanced social media affordances and intercultural communication competence: engagement, identity integration, and English proficiency

Introduction AI-enhanced social media increasingly provides university students with algorithmic recommendation, translation, writing assistance, pragmatic feedback, and cultural interpretation functions that can shape intercultural communication experiences. This study examined the associations between AI-enhanced social media affordances (AIESMA) and self-reported intercultural communication competence (ICC) among Chinese university students in business-related majors, focusing on the explanatory roles of intercultural interaction engagement (IIE) and cultural identity integration (CII), and the moderating role of self-reported English proficiency. Methods A two-study design was employed using two independent samples totaling 1,200 Chinese university students in business-related majors. Study 1 involved 400 respondents and focused on instrument development and preliminary validation through expert review, cognitive interviews, exploratory factor analysis, and reliability assessment. Study 2 included 800 independent respondents and tested the measurement and structural models using partial least squares structural equation modeling, including direct, indirect, sequential indirect, moderation, and moderated mediation analyses. Results AIESMA was positively associated with IIE and CII, whereas its direct association with self-reported ICC was not statistically significant after IIE and CII were included in the model. Both IIE and CII were positively associated with self-reported ICC. The indirect association between AIESMA and ICC through IIE was significant, whereas the indirect association through CII alone was not. The theoretically specified sequential indirect association through IIE and CII was significant. Self-reported English proficiency strengthened the AIESMA–IIE association and the conditional sequential indirect association, with stronger effects observed at higher proficiency levels. Discussion The findings indicate that AI-enhanced social media affordances are associated with self-reported intercultural communication competence primarily through engagement-centered indirect associations rather than through a direct affordance-to-competence relationship. Cultural identity integration contributes to ICC within the theoretically specified engagement-to-identity pathway, while English proficiency functions as a modest boundary condition. These findings support the use of AI-enhanced social media as a guided environment for intercultural participation, reflection, identity negotiation, and professional communication practice in business education.