Key points:
- Higher-ed students and instructors validate importance of AI literacy in courses
- Redefining accessible, AI-powered global higher education
- HBCUs and the potential for disruptive AI innovation
- For more news on GenAI adoption, visit eCN’s AI in Education hub
Nearly half of HED instructors (45 percent) have positive perceptions about GenAI, despite concerns and perceived risks in its adoption, according to updated data from Cengage Group‘s “AI in Education” research series, which regularly evaluates AI’s impact on education.
This edition, which surveyed over 3,000 higher-ed (HED) students and instructors and over 1,000 K-12 teachers and administrators, found similarities among HED instructors’ and K-12 teachers’ optimism for GenAI specifically.
However, while both K-12 and HED share similar optimism, the data also exposed strong differences in GenAI adoption rates. Nearly 2 in 3 K-12 teachers (63 percent) say they (or their school district) have incorporated GenAI technology into their teaching process compared to 49 percent of HED instructors.
“Educators and administrators remain optimistic about the potential of GenAI and are starting to realize the positive impact it can have on learning,” said Kimberly Russell, vice president, UX, Market and Product Research at Cengage Group. “While we’re encouraged by this optimism, we found a significant delta–28 percent difference–in reported adoption rates between both groups. Adoption and usage trends are important because they provide our product development team a more holistic view of how both markets are using GenAI in education.”
While differences remain, both markets continue exploring GenAI to support various professional and student needs. Within HED, instructors are currently using GenAI to create course content / student-facing materials (45 percent; +11 percent from 2023) including quizzes and assessments (39 percent; +16 percent from 2023), assist in lesson planning (42 percent; +18 percent from 2023) and support their lectures (42 percent; +12 percent from 2023). Nearly 2 in 5 (36 percent) use it to complete administrative tasks (36 percent; +3 percent YoY). HED students are also leveraging GenAI in learning, primarily by using it to help summarize complicated concepts (67 percent), generate writing assignment ideas (61 percent) and create study materials (55 percent).
Additional HED findings among students and instructors show:
- Demand for future use cases: Most desired AI use cases among HED instructors is AI that supports language learners (63 percent), assesses whether cheating is occurring, (57 percent) completes administrative tasks (55 percent) and personalizes learning and instruction (52 percent).
- AI skills and literacy matter: Almost all HED instructors (92 percent) and students (83 percent) say it’s important to include AI literacy in courses, partly because most students (84 percent) believe AI skills proficiency is important for future employment.
- Instructors still need to catch up: About two-thirds (65 percent) of HED students believe they know more about AI than many of their instructors and 45 percent wish their instructors used AI and taught AI skills in applicable courses.
“We are just scratching the surface on the potential GenAI has for personalizing learning and supporting HED educators, and it’s encouraging to see such optimism and adoption growth in this market,” said Darren Person, chief digital officer at Cengage Group. “At the same time, we’re noticing new opportunities to meet the evolving needs of students. Students need educators to embrace and encourage GenAI use in their curricula to support greater employability; instructors want expanded AI capabilities that help them personalize and evaluate students’ learning efforts. Both are critical focus areas Cengage Group is leaning into as we evolve and develop new AI edtech capabilities.”
The data presented in this report comes from a survey conducted in Spring 2025. It surveyed 1,190 HED instructors, 1,834 HED students, 872 K-12 Teachers and 311 K-12 administrators in the United States.
This press release originally appeared online.
