Does electric potential influence the direction of current?
Does electric potential influence the direction of current?


Yes it does. As you said, conventional current flow is from a higher potential to a lower one.

With your typical AC waveform (a sinusoid), the voltages don't switch discretely. They gradually increase or decrease. For one half of a cycle, one terminal will be higher than the other, and you will have current flow from the more positive to the more negative. For the next half of the cycle, the other terminal will be higher, and you will have current flow again from whichever terminal has a higher potential relative to the other. This is conventional current flow.