AI-ENHANCED ENGLISH FOR EMPLOYABILITY: DESIGNING A VISION 2030-ORIENTED EFL CURRICULUM IN SAUDI HIGHER EDUCATION

Abstract

The vision of developing human capital through improving professional communication, collaboration across cultures, technical document analysis and digital collaboration in the workplace as the enablers of economic diversification and competitiveness is part of the Vision 2030 plan. Therefore, the development of an effective English for Specific Purposes (ESP) program is viewed as one of the ways of achieving those workforce goals, as EFL instruction will improve professional communication in the workplace. However, with the growing number of AI-powered tools used in writing, reading and communicating, this literature review offers an overview of current empirical knowledge gained from studies conducted between 2020 and 2025 about using AI in EFL and curriculum design and proposes a compatible curriculum model for Saudi universities. The current study adheres to the PRISMA guidelines when reporting on its structure and content as a structured narrative literature review [1], and it relies on the findings of studies on AI-powered EFL writing technologies [13–15,18–23]; on the impact of the use of AI on academic integrity [12,16–18,20–23]; on the implications of AI integration into higher education, such as the responsible implementation of AI-powered education [2–7,30]. While "AI-enhanced employability" refers to the ability to generate assignments with the help of AI technologies, our concept involves curriculum designing approaches aimed at fostering AI literacy and skills of verification and reflection. Recent studies on ESP reveal both benefits and challenges related to AI-powered technologies, including the improvement of students' fluency, idea generation, vocabulary acquisition, the risk of AI overuse, and loss of students' voice. In this sense, the choice of a particular approach and model can be significant in achieving the desired learning outcomes. As for the contribution of the study, we offer a combined framework (Fig. 1) and an assessment matrix (Table 1). Moreover, our paper elaborates on a methodological framework of mapping labour market needs into an ESP curriculum, which allows evaluating EFL learning outcomes in the context of Vision 2030. In other words, by ensuring academic integrity and encouraging effective application of AI in the workplace, Saudi universities will have a greater chance to benefit from innovative EFL programs and tools powered by artificial intelligence.