ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AS A TALENT MANAGEMENT TOOL FOR ENHANCED SERVICE DELIVERY AND GLOBAL COMPETITIVENESS IN PUBLIC UNIVERSITIES IN RIVERS STATE

Abstract

The study focused on reimagining artificial intelligence as a talent management tool for enhanced service delivery and global competitiveness in public Universities in Rivers State. Three research questions and three hypotheses were answered and tested in the study. The study adopted a descriptive survey design while the population of the study consisted of all the 138 Heads of Departments in the three public Universities in Rivers State out of which all the 138 lecturers were sampled for the study using purposive sampling technique. The instrument used for data gathering was a 15 item questionnaire named “Reimagining Artificial Intelligence as a Talent Management Tool for Enhanced Service Delivery and Global Competitiveness Questionnaire” (RAITMTESDGCQ) which was face and content validated by three experts in Educational Management at University of Port Harcourt while the reliability was estimated as 0.88 using Cronbach Alpha statistics. Out of the 138 copies of questionnaire administered, 107 copies from 81 males and 26 females which represented 78.0% were retrieved and used for analysis. The research questions were answered using mean and standard deviation while the hypotheses were tested using z-test at 0.05 level of significance. The findings from the study indicated that the most talent management function was screening of applicant’s CV which had a low mean score of 2.43. Similarly, prediction of staff turnover risks also had a low mean value as well as succession planning. This indicated a low level of adoption of AI for talent management in these institutions. The only function that showed a high level of application was organizing development programmes for staff. The highest perceived relevance of AI in talent management was for accuracy in the staff hiring process and simplifying staff data management process. The most pressing challenge in the use of this technology was identified as inadequate expertise in the use of AI and the high cost of AI-enabled tools and resources among others. The study recommended that University administrators need to be trained on the talent management functions of AI and this knowledge should be passed down to other staff for effective service delivery in the Universities.