Human-AI collaboration in higher education: Exploring the impact of technology expectations and distrust

Drawing on expectation confirmation theory (ECT), this study explores the factors that impact Human-Artificial Intelligence (AI) collaboration and investigates the effect of students' distrust towards GenAI. An online survey was administered to students in higher education using GenAI (N = 245). This study found positive and significant relationships between effort expectation and performance expectation, as predicted by ECT, with positive confirmation of GenAI collaboration significantly influencing intentions and positively impacting student behavior. This study further revealed that GenAI distrust negatively moderates the relationships between (1) effort expectation and performance expectation; and (2) expectation confirmation toward collaborating with GenAI and intentions to collaborate with GenAI. Accordingly, this research contributes to the understanding of the role of distrust into Human-AI collaboration and extends the theoretical boundaries of ECT in higher education context. Practically, our findings provide insights for educators and GenAI practitioners to develop strategic approaches that effectively bridge students' distrust and initial expectations with responsible Human-AI collaboration behaviors.