The use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been steadily increasing in educational settings. It is utilized by staff, students and faculty, from assisting in student recruitment to supporting students the classroom. Multiple recent global surveys found that the student use of AI is around 86%. Despite the high use of AI, the student awareness of the impact of this use in their learning is often overlooked. Therefore, this study focused on addressing student awareness of benefits of AI in their own educational setting. We used a survey in a graduate school setting at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville to analyze AI use and perceptions. After stablishing a baseline on the use of AI in a graduate program, we collected the student perceptions of the benefits of their choice of AI in their learning. Aligning with global survey data, 81% of graduate students use AI multiple times a week. About 90% of students stated that AI helped them to understand better, simplified the concepts, and tailored the explanations to their individual needs. However, there was not a clear agreement on the perception of a negative impact of AI assistance on their thinking skills. In conclusion, graduate students value the use of AI in their educational journey because it provides personalized support for understanding complex topics. Knowing how students value AI and where they observe the greatest impact in their learning, offers the opportunity to align the current pedagogy with similar approaches and encourages the incorporation of AI tools rather than banning them from class. This abstract was presented at the American Physiology Summit 2026 and is only available in HTML format. There is no downloadable file or PDF version. The Physiology editorial board was not involved in the peer review process.
Fortepiani et al. (Fri,) studied this question.