5 Ways Students Can Use AI To Balance School And Work Responsibilities

Forbes

28-03-2025

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According to the National Center for Education Statistics report, nearly half of full-time undergraduate students work while enrolled in classes. Balancing school and work responsibilities creates a constant time crunch and stress for these students.
Artificial intelligence tools offer solutions beyond basic homework help. These technologies can transform how students organize information, study efficiently, and complete assignments—all while respecting academic integrity.
Here are five practical ways students can use AI to manage their competing responsibilities.
The main difficulty for working students is fitting everything into a 24-hour day. AI scheduling tools do more than basic calendar functions by analyzing patterns and making better use of available time.
Apps like Motion and Reclaim.ai offer AI-powered calendar management. Motion automatically blocks study sessions around work shifts and suggests optimal times for focused work based on your productivity patterns. Reclaim.ai creates flexible time blocks that adjust if meetings or other priorities emerge. While both platforms require subscriptions, they offer student discounts and free trials.
These AI scheduling platforms operate through user-friendly interfaces rather than chat prompts. The AI automatically handles calendar optimization after setting your availability preferences and priorities. They integrate with existing calendar systems to schedule recurring meetings with professors or study groups and create buffer time between activities. This automation reduces the mental work of constantly reorganizing schedules, allowing students to focus on academic and work responsibilities rather than calendar management.
Are you new to AI? Start by entering fixed commitments (classes, work hours) and letting the AI suggest slots for study sessions, breaks, and transition times.
Conversational AI tools like ChatGPT clarify textbook concepts in more accessible language. Students struggling with economic principles can type prompts like: "Explain supply and demand as if teaching a beginner. Include a simple example of why this concept matters."
When preparing for exams, students copy segments of their notes into ChatGPT with the prompt: 'Create five practice questions testing my understanding of these concepts. Include answers with explanations.'
Wolfram Alpha serves different needs for science and math courses. Unlike conversation-based AI, students enter specific equations or problems into the search bar. Typing "integrate x^2 sin(x)" yields the answer and a step-by-step solution showing the mathematical process.
Students use TurboLearn AI to turn dense PDFs and documents into easily digestible notes and podcasts. One can put in a 100-page research paper and get a 45-minute podcast of two AI voices explaining it to them. After understanding the material through notes and podcasts, students use the platform's revision feature to generate practice assessments and flashcards. The tool, now serving over 2 million students, was created by Rudy Arora and Sarthak Dhawan while they were students in college.
AI use is growing. Pew Research Center data shows that 26% of American teenagers use AI tools for schoolwork—double the number from two years prior. Students achieving positive academic outcomes typically use these tools to supplement their understanding rather than replace direct engagement with course materials.
Research papers and writing assignments can be incredibly time-consuming for working students. AI offers ethical assistance that maintains academic integrity while reducing unnecessary work:
Elicit, a research assistant tool designed for academic work, uses an interface different from conversational AI. Students enter a research question, and Elicit searches academic papers, summarizes findings, and extracts key information. For example, typing "What factors affect student stress in college?" returns relevant studies with key findings summarized, allowing you to identify valuable sources quickly.
ChatGPT can help with paper structure and organization. For example, a student might ask, "I'm writing a research paper on the impact of social media on teen mental health. Can you help me create an outline that includes a thesis statement, main arguments, types of evidence needed, and potential counterarguments?"
Other AI writing tools work through specific interfaces rather than open prompts:
Working students often can't attend office hours or study groups due to job commitments. Forty percent of students said scheduling conflicts prevent them from attending office hours, according to a survey of students and instructors at Chapman University.
AI can serve as an always-available study companion through different types of tools:
QuillBot features specific functions you select from a toolbar—not by writing prompts. Students can paste text and use the summarize feature to condense lengthy readings or the paraphrase feature to rephrase complex academic language into more accessible terms.
Speechify works by uploading documents or copying text that the AI converts to audio. This allows students to listen to course materials during commutes or work breaks.
Conversational AI, like ChatGPT, works well for concept explanations and connections. A biology student might type: 'I'm studying cellular respiration and trying to understand how glycolysis relates to the Krebs cycle. Can you explain the connection between these processes, provide a real-world example of their relationship, and explain why understanding this connection is important?'
Many student responsibilities involve predictable tasks that AI can streamline. Email management tools like Spark use AI in the background - not through prompts. After you set up your preferences, Spark automatically categorizes emails into "Personal," "Notifications," and "Newsletters," helping students prioritize communications from professors, classmates, and work supervisors.
For workflow planning, conversational AI tools like ChatGPT can help create organizational systems. A student might ask: 'I need to create a system to manage my assignments across four classes while working 20 hours per week. Can you help me design a template for tracking assignment due dates, a method for prioritizing tasks, steps for breaking large assignments into smaller daily tasks, and a weekly review process?'
While AI offers powerful assistance, using it responsibly is essential. Always check your institution's policies regarding AI use for academics. Most schools now distinguish between using AI as a learning aid versus submitting AI-generated work as your own.
Best practices include disclosing AI use to professors when appropriate, never submitting AI-generated work as original, and using AI to improve understanding rather than replace critical thinking.
For students balancing work and school, AI tools offer a way to manage competing demands without compromising academic integrity. AI becomes a support system for balancing educational goals with work responsibilities by focusing on organization and efficiency.