Higher education has seen substantial changes with the growing integration of computer-based intelligence technologies into the learning process. Nevertheless, the acceptance of computer-based intelligence in advanced educational settings is still faced with various difficulties, including perceived dangers, implementation assumptions, and exertion assumptions. This exploration plans to determine the relationship between risk policies, implementation assumptions, and effort assumptions with social expectations regarding the acceptance of computer-based intelligence innovations in advanced educational organizations in North Sulawesi, Indonesia. Moreover, this exploration also tests the role of social goals as a mediator variable connecting these elements. As a research method, a survey was conducted using a survey of students and academic staff from various universities in North Sulawesi with a sample size of 330 people with different educational backgrounds. The research results show that risk perception, performance expectations, and effort expectations have a large influence on behavioral intentions to adopt artificial intelligence (AI) in higher education. In addition, this study found that behavioral intention acts as a moderator that moderates the relationship between perceived risks, performance expectations; while effort expectations through behavioral intentions do not have a significant influence on AI adoption. These results provide valuable insights for higher education institutions in planning AI adoption strategies, with a focus on managing perceived risk, increasing performance expectations, and reducing effort expectations. In addition, this research also highlights the large role of recognizing behavioral intentions in the process of adopting AI technology in higher education, so that it can increase the effectiveness of its implementation.