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Abstract
AI chatbots such as ChatGPT have rapidly entered the academic lives of Nigerian students, raising both hopes and concerns about their effect on academic writing. This study examined the impact of AI chatbots on the academic writings of Nigeria Certificate in Education (NCE) students. Four research questions and two null hypotheses guided the study. A descriptive survey design was adopted. The population comprised 5,860 NCE III students in the two public colleges of education in Anambra State, from which a sample of 361 was drawn by proportionate stratified random sampling. Data were collected with a validated 36-item AI Chatbots and Academic Writing Questionnaire (ACAWQ), which yielded a Cronbach's alpha of .85. Mean and standard deviation answered the research questions, while the independent-samples t-test tested the hypotheses at the .05 level. Findings showed that students used AI chatbots to a high extent for academic writing (M = 2.74), mostly for grammar correction, idea generation and paraphrasing. Students perceived positive impacts on grammar, organisation, vocabulary and writing speed (M = 3.06), but also negative impacts, including over-dependence, plagiarism, fabricated references and difficulty writing without AI (M = 2.92). Gender did not significantly influence perceived positive impact, t(359) = 1.00, p = .318, but students in arts, languages and social sciences perceived greater negative impact than science students, t(359) = 2.64, p = .009. The study recommends institutional AI-use policies, training in responsible use, disclosure requirements and process-based writing assessment.