Top Ten Ways College Studends Use AI
Answer
📖 College students are rapidly adopting AI tools for studying, writing, coding, and career preparation—transforming learning habits while raising new challenges for education.
1. 📘 Explaining Concepts & Tutoring ➔
Students use AI as just-in-time tutors for step-by-step explanations and clarifying difficult concepts.
HEPI 2025 Survey |
Chegg Global Survey |
Anthropic Student Report
2. 📑 Summarizing Readings & Lectures ➔
AI condenses articles, chapters, and lecture notes into digestible summaries.
HEPI 2025 |
DEC Global Survey
3. 💡 Brainstorming & Outlining ➔
AI sparks ideas, suggests essay topics, and helps structure outlines.
Grammarly/Talker Research
4. ✍️ Editing, Proofreading, & Rewriting ➔
Students rely on AI for grammar checks, clarity, and improving professionalism.
DEC Global Survey
5. 🔍 Research Discovery & Literature Triage ➔
AI suggests research ideas, summarizes scholarly papers, and manages references.
HEPI 2025 |
Jisc 2025
6. 💻 Coding Help & Debugging ➔
AI tools like ChatGPT and Copilot assist with debugging and writing code snippets.
Anthropic Student Report |
Rahe & Maalej 2025 (arXiv)
7. 📚 Study Aids & Practice Questions ➔
AI generates flashcards, quizzes, and worked problem walkthroughs.
Inside Higher Ed (2024)
8. 📝 Note-Taking & Lecture Summaries ➔
Students use AI to extract key points and create concise lecture notes.
Jisc 2025
9. 📖 Citation & Reference Help ➔
AI formats citations and helps generate bibliographies, often paired with tools like Zotero or Elicit.
Jisc 2025
10. 🎤 Career Prep & Professional Communication ➔
AI supports résumés, cover letters, mock interview prep, and presentation coaching.
Jisc 2025
🔗 HEPI & Kortext (2025). Student Generative AI Survey 2025
🔗 Chegg Global Student Survey (2025)
🔗 Jisc (2025). Student perceptions of AI
🔗 Anthropic (2025). Education Report: University AI Use
🔗 Digital Education Council (2024). Global AI Student Survey
🔗 Grammarly / Talker Research (2025)
🔗 Inside Higher Ed (2024)
🔗 Rahe, M. & Maalej, W. (2025). How Do Programming Students Use Generative AI? arXiv
Author: ChatGPT — reviewed for accuracy.