College Students' AI Use Skyrockets Amidst Classroom Debates and Graduation Ceremony Jeers

The regular use of artificial intelligence among business school students has dramatically increased over the past three years, according to research from American University’s Kogod School of Business. Despite this surge in academic integration, some commencement ceremonies have featured speakers being met with boos when referencing the technology, highlighting a notable divide in its reception.

The survey indicates that the proportion of business students routinely incorporating AI into their academic work has risen from 6% to 29% in the last three years. Overall, more than 80% of college students reported using AI for academic purposes in the past six months, with nearly a third utilizing it 11 or more times weekly for school or work-related tasks. The survey, which gathered responses from 483 business students between 2024 and 2026, was first reported by Axios.

Common applications for AI among these students include brainstorming ideas, with about three in four using it for this purpose. Over half reported using AI to find information sources, and 62% employed it as a summarization tool. Among preferred AI models, nearly nine in 10 students cited Perplexity, followed by ChatGPT at 79% and Anthropic’s Claude at 39%.

This trend in academic use parallels a growing demand from employers. The frequency of job interviews including AI-related questions has climbed from 12% to 43% over the same three-year period, even as some educational institutions have implemented outright bans on AI in coursework.

Casey Evans, interim dean at Kogod, noted to Axios that the school has not encountered significant resistance to AI, emphasizing that students are not compelled to use it without guidance. Similar findings emerge from other research; an Inside Higher Ed survey of 1,038 students found 85% had used AI for coursework in the past year, and a Gallup poll indicated that 57% of US college students use AI weekly, with 20% using it daily.

However, apprehension about AI persists among students. The Inside Higher Ed survey revealed that 40% of students are concerned AI hinders independent thinking, and more than half of Kogod students expressed concerns regarding academic honesty and AI use. These anxieties have surfaced publicly, as seen in May when a real estate executive's commencement address at the University of Central Florida was met with mockery and boos after calling AI the "next Industrial Revolution."