Advancing project leadership education through AI-enhanced game-based learning

This paper offers a design-led investigation of AI-enhanced game-based learning (AI-GBL) as a transformative pedagogical approach for project leadership education. Addressing the persistent theory–practice gap in project management training, the study incorporates generative AI into ethically complex, emotionally engaging simulation environments that mimic real-world stakeholder challenges. The intervention allows learners to participate in adaptive decision-making, critical reflection, and ethical reasoning in face-to-face and blended formats, based on principles from experiential learning, productive failure, and relational pedagogy. Implemented in 2024 across undergraduate and postgraduate cohorts at an Irish university, the intervention was examined through six interconnected design themes: relevance, agility, identity, ethics, motivation, and adaptability. These themes were instructional principles and analytical lenses, revealing significant conceptual learning gains, enhanced ethical deliberation, and evidence of evolving leadership identity. Qualitative data from reflective journals and digital dialogues demonstrated students' growing capacity for situated judgement, collaborative reasoning, and morAIal awareness. This paper offers a conceptual roadmap for integrating AI-GBL into leadership education, viewing generative as a pedagogical co-ordinator that supports ambiguity, highlights values, and fosters human-centred learning. It advocates for ethically designed AI to develop project leaders who are skilled, self-aware, ethically grounded, and capable of leading with integrity in an era of complex technology. As AI reshapes work and learning, AI-GBL provides a way to align human abilities with technological potential.