Artificial intelligence is spreading in classrooms, but its impact on learning depends less on the technology than on how students use it.

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Hundreds of millions of primary and secondary students are starting their schools for the new academic year this month. But the advent of Artificial Intelligence is changing the students’ learning process.

Students and teachers are grappling with the question: what is homework for, when an AI chatbot can finish it in seconds?

Some countries have moved fast with the adoption of AI. China requires at least eight hours of AI instruction a year, and in the Gulf, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Qatar have all begun integrating AI into their curricula.

AI chatbots can make learning faster and easier. But what happens when students put the technology aside? How much of the learning was theirs, and how much stayed with the machine?

To investigate this, David Stromberg of Stockholm University, with Victor Lei and Yanhui Wu of the University of Hong Kong, ran one of the largest studies of its kind, tracking about 27,000 students aged 12 to 18 in China for 30 months.

Their working paper combined data on homework, monthly closed-book exams and high-stakes entrance exams across nine subjects.

The results reveal a striking gap between doing schoolwork and learning from it.

After adopting generative AI, students’ homework scores rose by 18 percent, while the time spent on each assignment fell by about 30 percent, from 64 minutes to 45 minutes on average.

But when the same students sat monthly exams without AI, their scores fell by 20 percent within six months. Their performance in high-stakes entrance exams also declined, with the full effect emerging over a longer period.

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) came to a similar conclusion in its Digital Education Outlook 2026, a synthesis of the emerging research published in January. Where generative AI is neither built to teach nor used under any structure, it found, outsourcing tasks to the model improves performance with no real learning gains.

Research co-authored by Dragan Gasevic describes this potential erosion of productive cognitive effort as “metacognitive laziness”.

How students use those tools turns out to matter more than whether they use them.

A survey by Ipsos for the Vodafone Foundation asked 7,000 students aged 12 to 17 across seven European countries how they use AI when studying outside school and without teacher instruction.

The most common use was getting information, reported by 56 percent of students. Another 45 percent used AI to have terms and concepts explained to them. But 31 percent said they used it to provide complete solutions to tasks.

Fewer students used AI in ways that more directly support independent learning. Interactive or adaptive content was used by 29 percent to guide their learning, while only 20 percent used AI to create personalised learning plans and track their progress.

For students, AI is becoming more than a tool for completing schoolwork. It is increasingly part of the wider student experience, from getting instant help to finding someone to talk to.

The HEPI/Kortext Student Generative AI Survey 2026, based on 1,054 full-time undergraduates in the United Kingdom, found that 49 percent believe AI has improved their student experience. They pointed to saving time, better understanding and instant, personalised support.

The effects extend beyond studying. For the first time, the survey asked about loneliness. Most students, 59 percent, said AI made no difference. Among the rest, the split was almost even: 21 percent felt less lonely, 20 percent felt more.