Research

Survey: 86% of students already use AI in their studies

In a recent survey by the Digital Education Council, a global alliance of universities and industry representatives focused on educational innovation, the majority of students (86%) said they use artificial intelligence in their studies. And they use it regularly: 24% said they use AI daily; 54% daily or weekly, and 54% at least weekly.

Courtesy of Digital Education Council

For its Global AI Student Survey 2024, the Digital Education Council collected 3,839 responses from bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral students from 16 countries. The students represented several fields of study.

On average, students surveyed use 2.1 AI tools for their courses. ChatGPT remains the most commonly used tool, mentioned by 66% of respondents, followed by Grammarly and Microsoft Copilot (25% each). The most common use cases:

• Search for information (69%);
• Grammar check (42%);
• Summarize documents (33%);
• Rewrite a document (28%) and
• Create a first draft (24%).

Despite the widespread use of AI tools, the survey found that students were unsure whether they had sufficient AI knowledge and skills. 58 percent of students said they felt they did not have sufficient knowledge and skills in AI, and 48 percent felt inadequately prepared for an AI-powered workplace. In particular, 80 percent of students surveyed said that the integration of AI tools at their university (be it integration into teaching and learning, student and faculty training, course topics, or other areas) did not fully meet their expectations.

Key AI expectations from students included:

• Universities should provide training to teachers and students on how to use AI tools effectively (73% and 72% of respondents respectively).
• Universities should offer more courses on AI skills (72%);
• Universities should involve students in the decision-making process about which AI tools to implement (71%).
• Universities should increase the use of AI in teaching and learning (59%).

“The rise in AI usage is forcing institutions to view AI as core infrastructure rather than a tool,” commented Alessandro Di Lullo, CEO of the Digital Education Council and Academic Fellow in AI Governance at the University of Hong Kong. At the same time, he said, “universities need to think about how to effectively increase AI literacy to equip both students and academics with the skills they need to succeed in an AI-driven world.”

The full report is available here on the Digital Education Council website.