Abstract

This study investigated the effect of AI-powered writing assistants on the essay writing performance of students of the Lagos State College of Health Technology, Yaba, Lagos State. The rapid spread of tools such as ChatGPT, Grammarly, and QuillBot has transformed how students draft, revise, and refine written work, yet empirical evidence on their effect within Nigerian health-technology colleges remains limited. The study was guided by three objectives, three research questions, and three hypotheses. A quasiexperimental design complemented by a survey was adopted, and data were collected from a sample of 200 students drawn from the College using a structured instrument, the AI Writing Assistant and Essay Performance Questionnaire (AIWEPQ), together with pre-test and post-test essay scores rated with a standardized rubric. Research questions were answered using performance percentage analysis and descriptive statistics of mean and standard deviation, while the hypotheses were tested using Pearson product-moment correlation and multiple linear regression at the 0.05 level of significance. Findings revealed that the use of AI-powered writing assistants was widespread and was associated with marked improvements in grammar and mechanics, coherence and organization, and vocabulary and style. Mean essay scores in the AI-assisted (experimental) group rose from 48.6% at pre-test to 68.9% at post-test, compared with a smaller rise from 49.1% to 54.3% in the control group. A strong, positive, and significant relationship was found between the use of AI writing assistants and essay writing performance (r = 0.71, p < 0.05), and the regression model showed that three dimensions of AI assistance jointly explained about 55% of the variance in performance (R² = 0.55, p < 0.05), with grammar and feedback support the strongest predictor. The study concluded that AI-powered writing assistants significantly enhance essay writing performance when used responsibly, and it recommended guided integration, training, and safeguards for academic integrity