THE IMPACT OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE ON UNIVERSITY STUDENTS’ PERCEPTIONS OF ENVIRONMENTAL CHALLENGES AND SUSTAINABLE SOLUTIONS

In the context of Vietnam’s higher education strongly transforming towards digitalization and sustainability, this study aims to analyze the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on students’ awareness and intention to act for the environment. Based on the Extended Planned Behavior (TPB) model, the research model integrates two input factors: environmental awareness (EA) and the level of interaction with AI in environmental learning (AEEL), affecting three mediating factors: attitude (AT), subjective norm (SN) and perceived behavioral control (PBC), thereby predicting students’ green action intention (GAI). Data collected from 521 students at private university in Vietnam were processed using EFA, CFA and SEM. The results showed that both EA and AEEL had positive effects on AT, SN and PBC (p < 0.001). Among them, AEEL had the strongest influence on SN (β = 0.281) and PBC (β = 0.252). PBC had the strongest influence on GAI (β = 0.312), followed by AT (β = 0.274) and SN (β = 0.267). Bootstrapping mediation analysis confirmed that the mediating variables (AT, SN, PBC) played an important role in linking EA and AEEL with GAI. In addition, cluster analysis showed that female students and senior students had significantly higher levels of AI engagement and action intention. These results suggest that AI not only serves as a learning support tool but also as a catalyst for sustainable behavior in higher education.