AI for Study Support
How can AI help?
AI is becoming an increasingly familiar part of university study, with students exploring different ways to use it to support their learning. From understanding difficult concepts and organising information to developing your study skills, AI tools offer a range of opportunities to make studying more personalised, accessible and flexible.
Whether you’re preparing for an exam, revising a topic or exploring new ideas, AI can act as a useful study partner. However, it’s important to use these tools to complement your own learning, recognising that critical thinking, creativity and independent judgement remain essential.
This page highlights some of the ways AI can support your studies and encourages you to consider how these tools might be useful in your own academic work.
Learn with AI: Study Principles for Students
To help you use AI effectively and responsibly, Queen’s has developed the Learn with AI guide. This practical resource introduces a set of study principles designed to help you make informed decisions about when and how to use AI to support your learning.
The guide encourages students to use AI as a tool to enhance learning rather than replace it. It focuses on developing understanding, strengthening critical thinking, supporting independent learning, and maintaining academic integrity. By using AI in ways that promote active engagement with your subject, you can benefit from its capabilities while continuing to build the knowledge and skills that are essential for success at university and beyond.
Explore the Learn with AI guide ➡️
Discover practical principles and examples to help you use AI effectively throughout your studies.
How Can AI Support Learning?
Students use AI in many different ways throughout their studies. Depending on your needs and learning goals, AI may be able to help you:
Understand Difficult Concepts
AI can explain topics in different ways, provide examples, break down complex ideas into manageable chunks, and help clarify areas where you may be struggling.
Brainstorm and Generate Ideas
AI can help you explore a topic, identify different perspectives, develop initial ideas, and overcome writer's block. It can be particularly useful during the early stages of a project or assignment.
Organise and Plan Your Studies
AI tools can help create study schedules, revision plans, task lists, and structured learning activities to support time management and organisation.
Revise and Prepare for Assessments
AI can assist with creating quizzes, flashcards, practice questions, summaries, and revision activities that help reinforce your understanding.
Summarise and Organise Information
AI may help condense notes, identify key themes, and organise information into formats that are easier to review and study.
Support Writing and Communication
AI can help you improve clarity, structure, grammar, and style when drafting written work. However, any use of AI should align with your School, programme, and assessment guidance.
Getting the Most from AI
AI is most useful when it supports your thinking rather than replaces it. Use it to explore topics, test your understanding, and refine your work, while continuing to develop your own knowledge and skills.
For example:
✅ Ask AI to explain a difficult concept.
✅ Use AI to generate practice questions.
✅ Ask AI to suggest different approaches to a problem.
✅ Use AI to help organise your study plan.
✅ Ask AI to provide feedback on your ideas.
Rather than:
❌ Copying AI-generated content directly into assignments.
❌ Relying on AI without checking its accuracy.
❌ Using AI in ways that conflict with assessment guidance or academic integrity requirements.
Learn Actively, Think Critically
While AI can be a useful study aid, it can also make mistakes. Information may be inaccurate, incomplete, biased, or out of date. Always evaluate AI outputs critically and compare them with trusted sources and your own understanding.
The goal is not to let AI do your learning for you, but to use AI as a tool that helps you learn more effectively, think more deeply, and become a more independent learner.
To explore this further, visit our Critical Thinking and AI section for guidance on evaluating AI-generated information.
AI optimism coexists with concerns about accuracy and learning
Trust in AI varies by audience, with students reporting the highest levels, educators showing more caution and parents falling between the two groups. All surveyed audiences expressed concern that AI can sound confident even when it is wrong, including 69% of parents, 65% of higher education students, 65% of higher education educators… Across groups, concerns about overreliance on AI, loss of critical thinking and deep learning, and academic integrity and plagiarism also ranked highly.
Explore More
You can continue your learning journey by exploring where you’ll discover additional ways AI can support your studies, personal development, and future career:
AI Self-Help Guide: Using AI to Save Time
This guide is designed to help both staff and students use AI to become more efficient in everyday tasks such as writing emails, generating ideas, revision and tutoring, data analysis, visualisation, and more.
Each section of this guide includes example prompts you can use directly with AI tools. These prompts are tailored to help you complete tasks more efficiently and can be edited and adapted for your requirements.
View the guide here: AI Self-Help Guide: Using AI to Save Time
