ASSESSMENT OF THE USE OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE TECHNOLOGIES FOR RESEARCH ACTIVITIES BY POSTGRADUATE STUDENTS IN THE NIGERIAN DEFENCE ACADEMY, KADUNA

Abstract

This study examines the assessment of the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies for research
activities among postgraduate students at the Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA), Kaduna. It underscores
the increasing significance of AI in academic research, particularly in enhancing data analysis, academic
writing, literature review, and information management. Despite the transformative potential of AI tools
such as ChatGPT, Grammarly, QuillBot, and reference management software like Mendeley, Zotero, and
EndNote, postgraduate students in Nigerian universities continue to encounter challenges that hinder
effective utilization. These challenges include inadequate funding, limited access to research
infrastructure, insufficient technical skills, ethical concerns, and low awareness of advanced AI
applications. The study adopted a quantitative research design, involving a sample of 106 postgraduate
students drawn from a population of 1,063. Data were collected using a structured questionnaire, whose
reliability was established through a pilot study that produced a high Intraclass Correlation Coefficient
(ICC) of 0.961. The findings revealed that widely accessible and user-friendly AI tools such as ChatGPT (73.6%), Turnitin (67.9%), and Mendeley (61.3%) are the most frequently used, largely due to their direct
relevance to academic writing, plagiarism detection, and reference management. In contrast, more
advanced AI tools for data analysis and visualization, such as Data Robot and Beautiful.ai, recorded low
levels of usage, suggesting limited awareness and technical constraints. Overall, the study found that
postgraduate students’ adoption of AI technologies is strongly influenced by perceived usefulness and
ease of use.