Why do students use GenAI?

Generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) is becoming embedded in higher education, but adoption research often separates technology acceptance from students’ motivational experience. This study integrates the ARCS Motivation Model and UTAUT to examine behavioral intention and academic GenAI use behavior among Indonesian higher education students. Data were obtained from 308 valid survey responses and analyzed using SmartPLS 4 with 5,000 bootstrap samples. Confidence (β = .261, p < .001), social influence (β = .263, p = .002), and facilitating conditions (β = .282, p < .001) were positively associated with behavioral intention. Behavioral intention (β = .347, p < .001) and facilitating conditions (β = .520, p < .001) were positively associated with user behavior. The model explained 65.7% of behavioral intention and 65.9% of user behavior. PLSpredict indicated positive predictive relevance for both endogenous constructs.