AI Speeds Up Homework as Students Struggle With Exam Results

Updated by Faith Barbara N Ruhinda at 1406 EAT on Wednesday 2 September 2026

Hundreds of millions of primary and secondary school students are returning to school this month for the new academic year. But the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) is reshaping how students learn and complete their schoolwork.

Students and teachers are increasingly grappling with a fundamental question: What is the purpose of homework when an AI chatbot can complete it in seconds?

Some countries have moved quickly to adopt AI in education. China requires students to receive at least eight hours of AI instruction each year, while the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Qatar have begun integrating AI into their school curricula.

AI chatbots can make learning faster and easier. But what happens when students put the technology aside? How much of what they produced was actually their own work, and how much of the learning was effectively outsourced to the machine?

Faster Homework, Weaker Exams

To investigate this question, David Stromberg of Stockholm University, together with Victor Lei and Yanhui Wu of the University of Hong Kong, conducted one of the largest studies of its kind, tracking about 27,000 students aged 12 to 18 in China over 30 months.

Their working paper combined data on homework, monthly closed-book examinations and high-stakes entrance exams across nine subjects.

The findings reveal a striking gap between completing schoolwork and actually learning from it.

After adopting generative AI, students’ homework scores increased by 18 percent, while the time they spent on each assignment fell by about 30 percent, from an average of 64 minutes to 45 minutes.

However, when the same students sat monthly exams without access to AI, their scores fell by 20 percent within six months. Their performance in high-stakes entrance examinations also declined, although the full effect became apparent over a longer period.

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) reached a similar conclusion in its Digital Education Outlook 2026, a synthesis of emerging research published in January.

It found that when generative AI is not designed to support learning or used within a structured educational framework, outsourcing tasks to AI models can improve students’ performance without delivering meaningful learning gains.

How students use AI tools appears to matter more than whether they use them at all.

A survey conducted by Ipsos for the Vodafone Foundation asked 7,000 students aged 12 to 17 across seven European countries how they use AI when studying outside school and without teacher guidance.

The most common use was to obtain information, reported by 56 percent of students. Another 45 percent said they used AI to explain terms and concepts. However, 31 percent reported using it to provide complete solutions to assignments.

Fewer students used AI in ways that more directly support independent learning. About 29 percent used interactive or adaptive content to guide their learning, while only 20 percent used AI to create personalised study plans and track their progress.

For students, AI is becoming more than a tool for completing schoolwork. It is increasingly shaping the broader student experience, from providing instant academic assistance to offering a source of conversation and companionship.

The HEPI/Kortext Student Generative AI Survey 2026, based on responses from 1,054 full-time undergraduates in the United Kingdom, found that 49 percent believed AI had improved their overall student experience. Students cited time savings, better understanding of academic material and access to instant, personalised support among the key benefits.

The impact also extends beyond academics. For the first time, the survey asked students about loneliness. A majority, 59 percent, said AI had made no difference to their feelings of loneliness. Among the remainder, the responses were almost evenly divided: 21 percent said AI made them feel less lonely, while 20 percent said it made them feel more lonely.

-Aljazeera

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