Digital Skills and Personal Innovativeness Shaping Stratified Use of ChatGPT in Polish Adults’ Education

Abstract

The development of generative artificial intelligence tools, including large language models, opens new opportunities for adult education while simultaneously posing the risk of deepening inequalities resulting from differences in digital competences and individual dispositions. The aim of this article is to examine how digital skills (DS) and personal innovativeness (PI) shape differentiated and advanced use of ChatGPT (UC) among adult learners in Poland, with particular attention to the moderating role of gender. The study was conducted using the CAWI method on a nationwide sample of 757 adult ChatGPT users engaged in upgrading their qualifications. Validated scales of DS, PI, and UC were applied, along with confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structural equation modeling (SEM) using the WLSMV estimator, as well as multigroup SEM for women and men. The results confirm that both digital skills (β ≈ 0.46) and personal innovativeness (β ≈ 0.37) significantly and positively predict advanced use of ChatGPT, jointly explaining approximately 41% of the variance in UC, with stronger effects observed among men than women. Attention is therefore drawn to the need to incorporate a gender perspective in further research on the use of GenAI in adult education The findings point to a stratification of GenAI use in adult education and underscore the need to incorporate critical digital competences and AI literacy into sustainable education policies in order to limit the reproduction of existing inequalities.