The Limits of Digital Empowerment in Entrepreneurship Education in Yunnan Border Ethnic Universities: A Qualitative Study

Under China's "AI + Education" strategy, universities in Yunnan's ethnic border regions have rapidly introduced digital tools into entrepreneurship education, including AIGC content generators, data dashboards and virtual simulation platforms. Existing narratives often celebrate these technologies as straightforwardly "empowering". Based on document analysis, course case studies and interview-based qualitative evidence from three ethnic-border universities in Yunnan, this paper critically examines the limits of such empowerment. The findings show three intertwined constraints. First, a foundational limit emerges from gaps in infrastructure access, digital literacy and trust, particularly affecting rural minority students and senior teachers. Second, an adaptation limit arises when generic digital tools and case repositories, designed for coastal economies, fail to align with local entrepreneurial fields such as specialty agriculture, ethnic cultural industries and border trade. Third, a value limit appears as tool rationality and platform metrics narrow entrepreneurship education toward formal outputs (business-plan templates, polished slides) at the expense of deep engagement with local problems, emotional resilience and social responsibility. These limits are rooted in regional digital divides, university evaluation systems and a broader culture of technological solutionism. The paper concludes by proposing a "warm digitalization" approach that reorients technology use from tool-driven adoption to scenario- and problem-driven integration.