Students are increasingly turning to AI to study, even as they worry it could weaken their academic skills. A new CIVICA survey reveals why convenience is winning over credibility.
While 98% of European students identify at least one risk associated with AI, and 79% fear a decline in their academic skills, 61% use it regularly due to a lack of alternatives that are perceived as effective and accessible. This “resigned” adoption reflects an ecosystem where practicality trumps reliability.
Launched at the end of November 2022, ChatGPT quickly became a very practical alternative for students around the world. For this population, whose academic workload has increased considerably, the “practical” nature of access to information is a determining factor in its use. How has AI changed the information landscape for students in just a few years? The answers to this question can be found in a survey conducted by the European university alliance CIVICA among students from its 10 member institutions, including Sciences Po, summarized by Cécile Touitou, head of the Prospective Mission at the Sciences Po Library. The survey was distributed to 72,000 students via a conversational interface on smartphones in November 2025 and received 2,294 responses from all Alliance universities (51% master’s, 43% bachelor’s, 4% doctoral/post-doctoral, 2% other).
In a landscape saturated with information, where information overload and the proliferation of alternative content blur the lines, CIVICA students in the humanities and social sciences surveyed in a major transnational survey conducted at the end of 2025 are developing often fragile strategies to conduct their research. Between the quest for efficiency and time pressure—eroded by the omnipresence of screens—they favor “beneficial” content over reliable sources. They tell us that they make little use of primary documents, which can be demanding, time-consuming, and difficult to read, and now turn to AI to obtain summaries.
Students are divided: they trust university libraries but find some services inadequate, follow their teachers’ recommendations above all else, and lack the skills to use information and generative AI effectively. Aware of the risks of errors and bias, they feel helpless and are asking for more training and support.
Read more, on civica.eu.
