According to a 2026 Pew Research survey, 54 percent of students reported using AI for help with their schoolwork, with 12 percent saying they got AI help with all their assignments. A 2025 report from the Center for Democracy and Technology goes even further, estimating that 85 percent of teachers and 86 percent of students used AI in the 2024-25 school year.
OK, so what’s the lowdown about students and AI: Does it help them perform better in school, or does it harm their ability to learn? Actually, it does both, according to the latest research.
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A recent Stanford University study showed that K-12 students frequently perform better on math, writing, and coding tasks when using AI tools. But when you take the chatbots away, those improvements tend to evaporate, leaving some students (especially those using straight-up AI chatbots rather than those fine-tuned for learning) more dependent on AI tools than truly helped by them.
Another study from the Brookings Institute found that while “well-designed” AI tools used in an “overall, pedagogically sound approach” can be a boon in the classroom, an “overreliance” on AI chatbots can harm a student’s ability to learn and hinder their relationships with their teachers and fellow classmates.
The AI ban for New York City schools, which calls for a one-year pause in “student-facing generative AI” for public school students through the eighth grade, is among the toughest in the nation, yet some fear it’s still not strong enough. For one thing, the current ban only encompasses a single school year, not two as many parents had hoped, the New York Times reports.
There are also some key loopholes, including a provision that “centrally approved” e-books and coding programs are exempt from the AI ban, the Times notes.