It is ever so tempting to lean into the convenience of using AI as a study tool. Not only does it not judge you for not knowing a concept that you definitely should have mastered four weeks ago, it’s also available at midnight on a Sunday when you’re actually studying (and not just at 10 AM on Tuesdays, when your professor holds their only weekly office hours). However, like most things that come cheap and easy, it’s not a proper replacement for the real thing.
Learning, when done right, is often time-consuming, requires trial and error, and can be uncomfortable. In other words, the ease of using AI for studying could rob you of the necessary ingredients for deeper learning.
Research (Deslauriers, et al., 2019) has shown that active learning strategies (think: doing practice problems with your classmates with supervision from your professor), though often more frustrating and time-consuming, tend to be more effective than other learning methods that “feel better” on the surface. In this study, participants who attended a highly engaging talk and reported that they felt they had learned a great deal actually performed worse on a follow-up test compared to participants who had gone through what they perceived as a more frustrating and less effective study method: active learning.
What does this tell us? No, it’s not that studying is only good when it feels miserable. The real lessons here are that 1) we are not good judges of our own learning and 2) that learning is most effective when it’s active.
Using AI is one of those study strategies that feel good in the moment, but can often be too passive to be truly effective. Sure, it compliments us. It also gives us explanations in words that even a 5-year-old can understand. But defaulting to using AI can result in a false sense of mastery. When you look to AI to give you the answers without attempting to find them on your own, you lose the opportunity to experience the laborious but ultimately fruitful process of deep cognitive engagement that results in enduring learning.
What feels fluid, what feels facile, is not always what is best for your learning. Sometimes convenience isn’t everything.
Sources:
Deslauriers, L., McCarty, L.S., Miller, K., Callaghan, & Kestin, G. (2019). Measuring actual learning versus feeling of learning in response to being actively engaged in the classroom. PNAS, 116(39), 19251- 19257. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1821936116
Mills, A. (2025). AI and College Writing: An Orientation for Students. Creative Commons. Retrieved May, 26, 2026, from https://docs.google.com/document/d/1cfs_ubpIEOUpSfSBTxQLU54jyOtMYpDYyRQLcLw4Kn4/edit?tab=t.0.
Written by Ayoung Lee, Associate Director and Graduate Writing and STEM Specialist
Cover image by Neysa Porter, Operations Support Coordinator