Students Are Already Using AI. Are Colleges Teaching AI Literacy?

Forbes

11-06-2025

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While students are turning to AI in droves, colleges are behind the adoption curve. A June 2025 study published in TechTrends found that over 85% of college students have already integrated generative AI into their academic lives. However, most (80%) have no structured support in how to use it well, and 70% are asking for AI use guidance.
We're at a pivotal moment. Higher education must shift from policing AI to preparing students for it. The old playbook—banning tools, rewriting honor codes, treating generative AI as a threat to academic integrity—misses the larger opportunity. Students are not waiting for a syllabus update to experiment with AI. What they need now is intentional, ethical guidance: how to use AI to think more critically, write more clearly, and engage more deeply. Without this support, we risk reinforcing educational inequities and sending graduates into an AI-driven world unprepared to question, interpret, or lead.
Let's start by clearing up a common misconception: Students aren't just using AI to cut corners. The TechTrends study highlighted that many are using AI to ask better questions, not just find better answers. In fact, 52% reported using it to clarify complex material, 38% for technical documentation, and 29% for self-assessment. What they valued most wasn't convenience; it was the nonjudgmental, on-demand nature of the tool.
This aligns with the findings of Acuity's Asking to Learn study, which analyzed how students engage with AI when prompted to use it to improve their learning. In this qualitative research, students described AI tools as 'mirrors' and 'mentors' to explore ideas without the fear of looking foolish. The AI's responsiveness made them more willing to take intellectual risks.
In other words, many students aren't asking AI to think for them. They're asking it to help them to improve their thinking.
But not all students are benefiting equally. The TechTrends study found significant variation in AI readiness across demographic lines. For example, students at community colleges and technical institutions reported the highest levels of AI readiness, while students at for-profit institutions and private colleges felt less confident. Students who were also working full-time expressed the least benefit from AI tools, possibly because they had less time to explore them or viewed them with greater skepticism.
Even more concerning: While students are adopting these tools quickly, many don't feel they understand them. A 2024 global survey by the Digital Education Council found that 58% of students felt unprepared for the AI-enabled workforce, and a full 72% said their universities should offer formal training in AI literacy.
So what does it mean to be AI literate? It's not just about prompt engineering or knowing which tool gives the fastest response. AI literacy is a multidimensional skill set that blends technical fluency, ethical reasoning, and critical thinking and is for every student in every field.
As a college and AI strategist, I see this play out in real time: The students who are best positioned to thrive are not just those who use AI, but those who know when and how to use it responsibly. They treat AI as a tool for amplification; not substitution.
Drawing on guidance from the American Library Association's draft AI competencies and UNESCO's AI Competency Framework, it includes:
A few colleges are beginning to lead. And California is now requiring AI literacy in K–12 public education; a signal to higher ed about what's coming.
But these are exceptional cases. And the danger of doing nothing is very real. Left unguided, students may misuse AI not out of malice, but confusion. We cannot afford to let that confusion define the next generation's relationship to this transformative technology.
As educators and leaders, our responsibility isn't to eliminate AI from the classroom. It's to equip students to navigate it wisely, critically, and ethically.