Instagram reached 100 million users in 2.5 years.
TikTok did it in 9 months.
For ChatGPT, it only took 2 months.
AI is already part of how we work, learn, and think.
In France, 56% of working people now use AI tools in their professional activities, up 7 points since 2024, according to Sociovision’s L’Observatoire France.
Nowhere is this disruption more visible than among students.
Barely three years after becoming widely accessible, generative AI is already embedded in students’ academic lives.
In our study for the CIVICA European University Alliance (analyzing answers from 2,294 students across 8 leading institutions, from Sciences Po Paris to Bocconi University), we found that GenAI is now as important, sometimes more than teachers’ reading lists or library databases in students’ research workflows.
What does this look like in practice?
First, GenAI has become an academic research tool for 61% of students.
For 1 in 2 students, using AI is systematic.
And when they get stuck on a project or essay?
64% turn to GenAI for help.
More than those who ask a teacher (59%) and far more than those who consult academic library databases (28%).
And this is not about disengaged students.
These are students from some of Europe’s most prestigious universities.
Yet adoption comes with ambivalence.
Only 32% trust AI to suggest reliable sources, and nearly all associate it with risks such as misinformation, bias, or plagiarism.
Even more striking: 79% believe generative AI could harm their academic skills and 36% say it is very likely.
Students worry about losing the ability to:
- think independently
- write on their own
- master foreign languages
- develop deep analytical skills
We may be witnessing something new:
a generation adopting AI at scale while simultaneously questioning what it might take away from them.
Understanding this tension between mass adoption and lingering doubt will be critical for universities, educators, and organizations navigating the AI transition.
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