Artificial Intelligence Technology Skills Needed for Modern Office Functionalities of Undergraduate Business Education Students in Universities in Rivers State

The study examined the Artificial Intelligence Technology skills needed for modern office functionalities of undergraduate Business Education Students in Universities in Rivers State. Two (2) objectives, research questions and hypotheses respectively were stated to guide the study. Descriptive survey design was adopted for the study. A population of 60 Business Education Lecturers from Rivers State University (29), University of Port Harcourt (6) and Ignatius Ajuru University of Education (25), was used for the study. The Instrument for data collection was a self-structured questionnaire titled “Artificial Intelligence Technology Skills for Modern Office Functionality (AITSMOF)”. The Instrument was structured on a 4-points scale of High Extent (4points), Moderate Extent (3points), Low Extent (2points) and Very Low Extent (1point), validated by three (3) experts in the Department of Business Education. A reliability coefficient score of 0.83 was obtained using the Cronbach Alpha method. The research questions were answered using Mean and Standard Deviation while the hypotheses were analyzed using one-way Anova at 0.05% level of significance. The results from the study revealed amongst others that undergraduate Business Education students to a high extent, need AI data analysis and creativity skills to be able to enhance the automation of anomalies detection, easy decision-making and idea generation and innovation, respectively. The study concluded that AI data analysis skill helps in data visualization, analysis, detection of anomalies, prevention of fraud, synchronization of information, trends analysis for marketing strategies and budget analysis and optimization, as well as informed decision-making. Furthermore, AI creativity skill enhances innovation, conversion and translation of data from one source to another, synchronization and simulation of information, colour combination, imagination and automatic prompting for creative designs that promotes brands and marketing, thereby increasing sales and profitability as well as saving time. It was therefore recommended that AI technology tools and its uses be taught Business students to enable them function and utilize modern technologies in modern offices upon graduation and gaining of jobs.