The growth of Artificial Intelligence (AI) leads to a greater need for various skills to complement AI’s technical or content capacity. It is observed that higher learning institutions are sending the opposite message about AI usage as a result students have highly adopted it. Nevertheless, it is observed that students are not using AI transparently in their academic writing. Reports constantly indicate that postgraduate students still wrongly use AI to an extent that the interpretation has been framed as cheating and intransparency. This research therefore aimed at investigating the kind of empowerment that postgraduate students in education need to utilise AI in their academic writing effectively. Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) was borrowed to foreground this inquiry since it can broaden determinants affecting postgraduate students’ effective use of AI. A mixed method approach and explanatory sequential research design were adopted. 50 postgraduate students were randomly sampled to respond to questionnaires and 10 were purposively sampled to participate in semi structured interviews. Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) was used to analyse quantitative data while qualitative data were analysed thematically. Findings showed that students need AI training and capacity including ethical standard of using AI, training on meta-cognitive skills and soft skills to use AI. In addition, AI needs to be integrated learning curriculum. The study recommends higher education to invest more in the AI training, particularly for students. Further, the study concludes that there’s a significant AI learning gap that should be addressed.

Keywords: Artificial Intelligence, postgraduate students, support, training and capacity, soft skills.