AI School Leadership Minute: How Students Actually Use AI

AI School Leadership Minute: How Students Actually Use AI
Students are not experimenting with AI. They’re using it daily. Let’s walk through the problem (how they are using it) and the solution.

Problem:
A recent report from Anthropic studied over 1 million student chats with Claude.ai (ChatGPT equivalent).

Here’s what it found:

• Nearly half of all use was direct—AI did the work with little student input. That includes answering test questions, rewriting essays, and completing assignments.

• 34% was for solving problems. Things like working through hard math and science questions.

• Only 1.8% of usage involved basic recall.

• In short: Students are already delegating higher-order thinking to AI.

We can see the massive problem. Nearly half the time, students use AI to do the work for them. This means they are not developing:
- A mastery of a topic.
- Critical thinking skills.
- Problem-solving skills.

ChatGPT launched in November 2022. Below are some reference accuracy numbers:
- AP Calculus: 7th percentile.
- AP Chemistry: 46th percentile

Where we are now, 2.5 years later:
- ChatGPT places among the top 500 students in the US in a qualifier for the USA Math Olympiad.
- ChatGPT exceeds human PhD-level accuracy on a benchmark of physics, biology, and chemistry problems.

Okay, now add 10 more years.

It is clear to see that every student will use AI in their career. Not addressing AI properly is like not addressing the internet in 1995.

What would students need to thrive with AI?
- A mastery of a topic.
- Critical thinking skills.
- Problem-solving skills.

The skills students need to thrive with AI are the exact skills AI is diminishing today.

Even though this is true, the solution still isn’t to stop them from using it.

Solution:
If schools don’t catch up, students will build habits that bypass thinking instead of developing it.

Here is what we have done in 150+ schools to help solve this problem —

We completely shift how teachers think about AI. We take staff who are skeptical—or flat-out against it—and give them clarity.

The moment everything clicks: They learn how to prepare students for a future with AI.

We show teachers how to terminate the arms race that’s happening between education and anti-cheating tech.

Instead of banning tools, we change how learning is delivered—so it becomes impossible to cheat. If students were to use AI, they would have to use it as a tool. (And students will use AI no matter what.)

This allows students to actually build:
- A mastery of a topic.
- Critical thinking skills.
- Problem-solving skills.

Best part: AI presents us with an opportunity to efficiently bring education into the 21st century. Here is a resource guide that shows how to use AI to keep students learning in the AI era.

The bottom line:
Students who use AI for problem-solving will be able to solve problems in the world that we are not able to solve right now. That only happens if they have the skills to use AI the right way: As a tool, not a crutch.

A child who goes to a school that does not account for the existence of AI tools will struggle in the future workforce. The student who went to the school who did account for it will thrive.

If you want this transformation at your school, reply to this email with “Training.” I'll send you the details. (2025-2026 dates are going very fast.) You can check out case studies and testimonials here.

To making sure we prepare students for the AI era,
William Grube
Founder, Gruvy Education

PS—I would hate to send one of these out without giving you a way to use AI. Here is how you can turn student feedback into a report for the teacher.