Structured collaboration with generative artificial intelligence to foster innovation and strategic thinking in entrepreneurship education

Abstract This exploratory study aims to explore how undergraduate students engage in a structured collaboration with generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) tools within entrepreneurship education in a real educational context, focusing on applied strategies, perceived innovation and cognitive outcomes, the challenges they encounter, and how they address these challenges during the process. This classroom-based quantitative exploratory study recruited 123 undergraduate students from several university disciplines who participated in a structured student-AI protocol that lasted for two weeks and was part of a classroom-based innovation business project. A post-task survey was provided to participants to explore students’ perceptions of how structured collaboration with GenAI tools influences innovation, strategic thinking, skill development, and challenges in an entrepreneurship education context. The results indicated that participants during the experiment implemented different prompt-engineering strategies and revealed adaptive problem-solving skills with GenAI, including rephrasing their prompts, asking for clarifications, and challenging the students’ project assumptions. Students revealed that the GenAI-student collaboration encouraged them to develop advanced SWOT analyses, develop cognitive skills, and generate innovative business ideas. The results suggested that structured collaboration with GenAI in innovative business ideation projects can play a supportive role as a cognitive and strategic collaborative partner. Recommendations for future research and GenAI practices at the university level were also provided in this study.