New data shows that students use AI to support and not substitute their writing

AI is revolutionizing the writing process in higher education, with new data showing most students embrace it as a productivity tool rather than a shortcut. A writing professor’s perspective challenges the prevailing academic fear that AI undermines learning, suggesting instead that it might be freeing students to engage in deeper thinking by handling routine tasks—revealing a fundamental shift in how writing skills develop in the digital age.

The big picture: Recent data reveals that 92% of university students are using AI tools in some form, with many viewing artificial intelligence as the future of writing rather than a threat to academic integrity.

• A February 2025 report from the UK’s Higher Education Policy Institute confirms this widespread adoption among university students.
• As early as August 2023, just nine months after ChatGPT‘s release, more than half of first-year students at Kennesaw State University believed AI represented the future of writing.

Key details: ChatGPT conversations among college students are primarily education-focused, with writing support emerging as the dominant use case rather than complete paper generation.

• OpenAI’s February 2025 report found that over 25% of ChatGPT conversations among college-aged users are education-related.
• The data challenges assumptions that students primarily use AI to cheat, suggesting instead they’re leveraging it as a productivity enhancement tool.

How students are using AI: The top five AI applications for students center around enhancing different stages of the writing process rather than replacing it entirely.

• Starting papers and projects (49%) and summarizing long texts (48%) top the list, suggesting AI serves as an entry point rather than a replacement for student work.
• Brainstorming creative projects (45%), exploring new topics (44%), and revising writing (44%) round out the most common applications.

Why this matters: The shift toward AI use in writing doesn’t necessarily indicate diminished thinking but rather a transformation in how students allocate their cognitive resources.

• If AI handles routine tasks like information gathering or grammar checking, students may redirect their mental energy toward higher-order thinking like argument construction and stylistic refinement.
• This challenges educators to reconsider whether AI represents a threat to learning or an opportunity to deepen engagement with complex writing processes.

Between the lines: Students appear caught between embracing helpful AI tools and fearing academic judgment, creating a climate of reluctance to discuss their actual technology use.

• When a Princeton professor asked if students had used ChatGPT, none admitted to it—not out of dishonesty but from what The New Yorker described as paralysis.
• Students seem to have internalized the belief that using AI for coursework is somehow wrong, despite its widespread adoption.