What drives students' daily use of AI chatbots? Within- and between-person effects

AI chatbots such as ChatGPT have become part of everyday student life. But why do some students use them intensively and others hardly at all – and why do the same students use them more on some days than on others? Most research on technology acceptance relies on one-time surveys and therefore cannot separate stable differences between people from fluctuations within people.

What we did

Building on the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and its extension TAM3, we conducted two daily diary studies over five days with university students (Study 1: N = 72; Study 2: N = 153). Using multilevel structural equation modeling, we separated between-person from within-person relationships. Study 2 additionally examined facilitating conditions and subjective norm as predictors.

What we found

• AI chatbot anxiety was associated with perceived ease of use and usefulness, which serially mediated its link with usage intensity (Study 1).
• Between persons: in both studies, students who on average found chatbots easier to use and more useful used them more intensively.
• Within persons: in Study 1, the day-to-day link between ease of use and usage intensity was mediated by perceived usefulness. Study 2 did not replicate this daily mediation – and day-to-day variability in ease of use and usefulness was much lower in Study 2 than in Study 1.

What this means

To promote the meaningful use of AI chatbots in higher education, user-friendly interfaces, reducing AI-related anxiety, robust technical support, and peer influence all matter. Methodologically, the study shows why it pays off to consider both stable individual differences and daily dynamics when studying how people adopt AI.

Read the paper

Kleine, A.-K., Schaffernak, I., & Lermer, E. (2025). Exploring predictors of AI chatbot usage intensity among students: Within- and between-person relationships based on the technology acceptance model. Computers in Human Behavior: Artificial Humans, 3, 100113. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chbah.2024.100113