<p>The paper aims to investigate the factors influencing the acceptance of digital transformation in education. By integrating the UTAUT2 model, a theoretical model of digital transformation acceptance in education is constructed. Using data from universities in Shanghai, which is a pilot city for digital transformation in education, the study employs PLS-SEM and SEM-ANN methods to empirically analyze the influencing factors of digital transformation usage. The results indicate that digital literacy, performance expectancy, hedonic motivation, and price value are the main factors affecting the acceptance of digital transformation in education. Effort expectancy has no significant impact on acceptance. Gender and voluntariness among individual characteristics exhibit moderating effects. The SEM-ANN model, which verifies the SEM results, shows differences in the relative importance ranking, with price value rising in significance and performance expectancy being more important than digital literacy. This validates that the SEM-ANN method can capture non-linear effects and enhance model prediction accuracy.</p>