ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND COUNSELLING SERVICE AMONG UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS IN CROSS RIVER STATE

AI tools are increasingly being utilized in counselling services to provide student support, but their impact on undergraduate students needs to be thoroughly examined. This study examines the relationship between Artificial Intelligence and Counselling Service among Undergraduate Students in Cross River State. To achieve this, three (3) objectives, three (3) research questions and three (3) hypotheses were formulated. Correlational research design was adopted. The sample was 760 students from the sampled faculties out of 44,281 in UNICAL, 31,410 in CRSUE, and 23,971 in UNICROSS. Three experts validated the instrument, it was titled "Usage, Awareness, Attitude towards AI and Effective Counselling Service Questionnaire" and was administered to the respondents to elicit their responses. The instruments were 28 items with a 4-option answer format with three sections, section A elicited information on the demographic data of the respondents with 4 items while section B elicited information from the respondents on the level Usage, Awareness and Attitude towards AI and it is made up of 18 items six items each for the four variables while section C elicited questions about the respondents Effective Counselling Service with ten items both B and C on a 4-point scale. A pilot study was conducted on a sample of 50 participants, and an internal consistency coefficient of .86 was obtained using the Cronbach alpha reliability estimate methods. The research questions were answered using Bar Chat and percentages, while the hypotheses were tested using Pearson product-moment correlation at a .05 level of significance. The findings revealed that the usage, awareness, and attitude toward AI, positively relates with effective counselling service among undergraduate students in Cross River State, Nigeria.