The Effect of AI Gamification on Students’ Engagement and Academic Achievement in Malaysia: SEM Analysis Perspectives

Gamification and Artificial Intelligence (AI) have transformed the educational environment, offering innovative approaches to enhance student engagement and learning outcomes. By using the power of gamification and AI, educators can create immersive, personalized, and interactive learning experiences that increase motivation, participation, and academic achievement. This study investigates the relationships between gamification, artificial intelligence, student engagement, and achievement in educational contexts. A quantitative approach was employed, combining online surveys and structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis with 290 students from Malaysia. SEM analysis was performed using SmartPLS 4 software. The findings reveal significant positive relationships between gamification and student achievement, gamification and student engagement, gamification and artificial intelligence, and AI with both student engagement and achievement. Furthermore, student engagement was found to influence student achievement positively. The study’s implications suggest that educators and instructional designers should adopt these technologies to create intelligent, interactive, and personalized learning environments. Future research directions include exploring long-term effects and contextual factors influencing student outcomes to promote student success in the digital age. However, the study is limited to a single country context (Malaysia), and relies on self-reported survey data, which may influence generalizability and introduce potential biases.