This study assesses the impact of Moodle AI-powered chatbots and metacognitive teaching approaches on the academic performance of tertiary Business education students. Using a quasi-experimental pre-test/post-test control design and Activity theory, 83 final-year Business education students were sampled from a total of 324. Data were collected using a Performance Ability Test (PAT) and analyzed with means and standard deviations. Results indicate that students taught with AI-powered chatbots showed significantly higher performance compared to those taught with metacognitive approaches. The study suggests integrating Moodle-powered AI chatbots into Business education to enhance teaching and learning effectiveness in Nigerian tertiary institutions.