Student booing AI at graduation ceremonies has not stopped their ‘love’ for the tech for doing assignments and other work
College students may have shown their concerns about AI by booing pro-AI speakers at some graduation ceremonies, but that has not stopped them from increasingly using the technology for assignments and other work. A new survey from American University’s Kogod School of Business (via Axios) found that more than 80% of students surveyed had used AI for academic purposes in the previous six months. The share of business students who regularly use AI has also jumped sharply, rising from just 6% to 29% over three years. Nearly one-third now use AI 11 or more times a week for school or work-related tasks.
Students are increasingly using AI for assignments and research
The research as reported by Axios was conducted between 2024 and 2026 and included responses from 483 business students. The findings show that AI is becoming a regular part of students’ academic lives. Around three in four students said they use AI to brainstorm ideas, while 62% use it to summarise information. Just over half said they use AI to help find sources of information.The survey also found that students are using several different AI platforms. Nearly nine in 10 respondents said they had used AI from Perplexity, while 79% said ChatGPT was their preferred model. About 39% cited Anthropic’s Claude.Other research has found similar levels of AI use among college students. An Inside Higher Ed survey of 1,038 second- and fourth-year students found that 85% had used AI models to help with coursework over the previous year. An April Gallup poll, meanwhile, found that 57% of US college students use AI at least once a week, while one in five said they use the technology every day.
Employers are asking more questions about AI skills
Students’ growing use of AI also comes as employers increasingly look for workers who know how to use the technology. According to the Kogod research quoted in the report, the share of job interviews that included questions about AI skills increased from 12% to 43% over the three-year period. This shift is taking place even as some teachers and institutions continue to restrict or ban the use of AI for coursework.“We haven’t encountered a lot of resistance,” Casey Evans, interim dean at Kogod, told Axios, adding that the school has not forced students to use AI without guidance.
Students still worry about AI’s impact on learning
Despite widespread use, students are not completely comfortable with AI. Forty percent of students in the Inside Higher Ed survey said they were concerned that AI was hurting their own ability and that of their peers to think independently.Academic honesty is another concern. More than half of the Kogod students surveyed said they were worried about issues related to academic integrity and the use of AI. The findings highlight a growing contradiction on college campuses: students may be concerned about how AI could affect education, jobs and independent thinking, but many are also making the technology a regular part of how they study and work.
