Teens in the AI Era: Schoolwork and Skills That Matter

In a nationally representative survey of more than 1000 U.S. teens, we asked students how they use AI for schoolwork. The results show that AI is already in education spaces, but AI literacy conversations are lagging behind.

The findings from Teens in the AI Era: Schoolwork and Skills That Matter offer unique insights on how high school students are incorporating AI into their daily classwork, often without any guardrails. While students are aware that AI use can threaten learning, 70% report using AI for schoolwork, and nearly two thirds of those say they're using it in ways that offload critical thinking.

The survey's other key findings include:

• Teens are handing off thinking to AI. Among teens who use AI, 63% say they get an answer to their schoolwork from AI, whether they use it as-is (25%), rewrite it to sound like them (31%), or improve it with what they know (35%).
• Few teens are being taught AI literacy. Only 27% of teens say a teacher has ever talked with them about how to use AI safely; 73% say they have not.
• Bans don't seem to be closing AI safety gaps. Among teens who use AI for schoolwork, 44% have had an AI tool blocked on a school network or device, and 59% of them just switched to a personal device to get around the ban. 
• Teens see the cost themselves. Among those who use AI, 38% say having it leads them to generate fewer of their own ideas, and 39% say they feel like they're missing out on learning when they use AI to complete assignments.
• Teens report using AI in more nuanced ways than the cheating debate suggests. Sixty-six percent of those who use AI say it helps them understand schoolwork, not just finish it faster. Asked which skills matter most for the future, teens named human skills that AI can't or shouldn't replace, such as working well with others (55%), fact-checking and critical thinking (50%), and reading and understanding complex information (48%). 

More Resources: 

• Read more about our findings and why they matter 
• Explore our K–12 Digital Literacy & Well-Being Curriculum, with new AI-focused lessons for high school
• Watch our video and get our toolkit with tips on talking with kids about using AI wisely at school
• View the full survey questionnaire