35-country survey: 88% of university students use AI — and most say nobody taught them how
The Digital Education Council's 2026 global survey — 45,398 responses from 27,284 students and 18,114 faculty across 35 countries — finds AI use is now near-universal: 88% of students use it for learning, 77% of faculty for teaching (up 16 points in a year). But guidance lags badly: 57% of students say assessments come with inadequate AI rules, only 29% believe their instructors can guide them, and 66% worry AI encourages shallow learning. US/Canada faculty are the outliers, with intent to use AI falling to 67% while Asia-Pacific and Latin America exceed 90%.
Why it mattersThe debate over whether students will use AI is over — they do. The real gap is between near-universal use and near-absent guidance: universities that fail to close it are effectively grading students on rules nobody wrote down. The regional split also hints the next generation of AI-native graduates may not come from where you expect.
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