Influence of AI-Powered Writing Tools on the Research Writing Quality and Productivity among Postgraduate Students in Federal Universities in South-South Nigeria

This study examines the extent of influence of AI software on the research writing quality and productivity among postgraduate students in Federal Universities in South-South Nigeria. A descriptive survey design was used for the study. Stratified random sampling procedures permitted selection of 381 postgraduate students from a total population of 8, 01 5 at six institutions for the 2024/2025 academic session. A research instrument, consisting of 20 items titled “Artificial Intelligence Software and the Research Writing Quality and Productivity among Postgraduate Students Questionnaires” (AISRWQPPSQ), was developed and validated by experts, achieving a high reliability coefficient of 0.89. The result showed that QuillBot and Writefull were perceived to be highly valuable and strongly influential on patterns of research writing for both masters and doctoral students. The findings revealed a statistically significant difference in research writing quality and productivity between Master’s and PhD postgraduate students who utilized AI-powered writing tools. PhD students demonstrated higher mean scores in both writing quality and productivity compared to their Master’s counterparts. The observed differences were associated with the use of QuillBot, which enhanced textual quality and Writefull, which improved writing efficiency and grammatical accuracy. The null hypotheses were rejected at the 0.05 level of significance, indicating that academic level significantly influences the effectiveness of AI-powered writing tools on research writing outcomes. The study concluded that the use of AI-powered writing tools such as QuillBot and Writefull has a statistically significant positive influence on both research writing quality and productivity among postgraduate students is to a great extent. Therefore, the integration of these tools into academic writing practices can substantially improve research outcomes. It was recommended that universities incorporate AI writing tools into research training while establishing clear ethical guidelines for their appropriate use.