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# Understanding a concept is university students' top use of generative AI for schoolwork, at 56% in 2025
- URL: https://aiadoption.org/data/university-students-genai-uses/
- Published: 2026-10-19T17:22:33.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-21T06:05:54.000Z
- Description: 56% of university students in Chegg's 2025 survey use generative AI to understand a concept or subject, the top use. Research for assignments (52%) and first drafts (46%) follow.
- Author: Manu
- Tags: Data, AI in Education, Generative AI, #chart, #ai-index-2026, #hub-education, #topic-generative-ai

56%

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university students who use generative AI to understand a concept or subject, the most common use in 2025; research 52%

Understanding a concept56%

Research for assignments52%

Ideas and first drafts46%

## What the chart shows

Understanding a concept or subject is the most common use of generative AI among university students in Chegg’s 2025 survey, at 56%. Researching for assignments and projects (52%) and generating initial ideas or first drafts (46%) follow, then writing or editing essays (41%).

Fewer students use it to prepare for exams (36%), check homework (33%) or get step-by-step homework help (29%). Only 1% chose none of the listed uses.

## Key numbers

| Measure                                   | Value |
| ----------------------------------------- | ----- |
| Understanding a concept or subject        | 56%   |
| Researching for assignments and projects  | 52%   |
| Generating initial ideas or first drafts  | 46%   |
| Writing or editing assignments and essays | 41%   |
| Step-by-step homework help                | 29%   |

## How to read it

- Chegg Global Student Survey 2025 of university students in 15 countries, in whole percentages. Students could choose several uses, so shares add up to more than 100%.
- The AI Index notes that university students are more likely than US high school students to use AI to understand a concept (56% against 41% in a separate College Board survey); the two surveys ask different questions.

**Source:** [Chegg Global Student Survey](https://aiadoption.org/sources/#chegg-global-student-survey), 2025, via the AI Index Report 2026 (Stanford HAI), figure 7.2.17: *University students’ GenAI uses for schoolwork, 2025*. Chart and text by AI Adoption.  
Numbers checked against the published data on 20 October 2026.  
[Download the data (CSV)](https://charts.aiadoption.org/ai-index/csv/university-students-genai-uses.csv?ref=aiadoption.org) · [Cite this chart](#source)