Your students are already using AI to study. The question is whether that AI is designed to support learning or simply provide answers. Across classrooms worldwide, learners are reaching for AI on their own, which means the kind of AI shaping how they study deserves your attention. Study and Learn, an agent in Microsoft 365 Copilot, is designed to support active learning while keeping students engaged in the work. This post looks at what the latest global evidence says about how students use AI, why many institutions have held back, and the decisions institutions can make to support a learning-first AI experience.

Your students already use AI, so the question is what kind

AI adoption in education is accelerating worldwide. In Microsoft’s 2026 global research, 92% of students say they have already used AI for school-related purposes, and more than half of education leaders report their institutions are now implementing or scaling it.¹ Students reach for AI to summarize dense material, get unstuck, and brainstorm. About a third say they use it to learn or study in the way that works best for them. Students are already bringing AI habits into the learning environment. The opportunity is to help ensure that AI supports deeper understanding and learning.

Not every AI tool is built for that. Some AI experiences emphasize quick answers, while others are designed to guide learners through a process. Faced with that, some institutions have limited or blocked AI access altogether, even as students keep using it on personal devices. Restricting access does not necessarily prevent students from encountering AI outside school. It only removes your ability to shape how they use it, and it leaves learners with unmanaged tools and no guardrails.

Mind the gap between guidance and lived experience

There is a second gap worth closing: the distance between what leaders provide and what students and teachers experience. Four in five education leaders rate their institution’s AI guidance as clear, yet only about half of students and teachers say it has been provided at all. The training gap is wider still. In the same research, 77% of students and 53% of educators report no AI training, even while 66% of educators and 52% of students ask for it at least quarterly.² The findings suggest that support and training are not keeping pace with AI adoption.

Study and Learn keeps the thinking with the student

Study and Learn is a first-party agent in Microsoft 365 Copilot, purpose-built for education. Rather than emphasizing a finished answer, it is designed to guide learners through the process. A student preparing for a biology test can generate a flashcard set on the spot. A student working through a calculus problem can receive step-by-step support that encourages problem solving. A student drafting a history essay can talk through the argument and get questions in return that sharpen it. It works from a student’s own documents, slides, and PDFs, with citations back to the source.

What sets it apart is that it is grounded in learning science, not just AI. The experience is designed around learning-science principles intended to reinforce learning:

1. Adaptive scaffolding: Meeting students where they are, then stretching them toward what comes next.
2. Productive struggle: Leading with questions so students retrieve, attempt, and reason toward answers.
3. Active learning: Retrieval practice through flashcards, quizzes, matching, and fill-in-the-blank exercises.
4. Application and transfer: Giving students the agency to go deeper, apply what they have learned, or reinforce it.

Together, these principles are intended to encourage more active engagement with learning content. To see the research base for that design, read the learning science paper.

Study and Learn also runs inside the Microsoft 365 environment your school already manages, with enterprise-grade privacy and responsible AI protections built in. To see what it offers your students, find out more about Study and Learn.

The students aren’t just asking for answers. They’re asking Copilot Chat better questions, and that’s a major shift.

Shane Tooley, Assistant Principal Curriculum, St. Peter Claver College, Australia³

How to enable Study and Learn for students

Here is the practical part. Study and Learn is available with eligible Microsoft 365 Education licenses, including A1, A3, and A5. It has one prerequisite: Copilot Chat must be turned on. For student accounts in primary and secondary education, Copilot Chat is off by default, and only an IT administrator can enable it, using age-gating controls for learners aged 13 to 17. Without that setting, your students cannot reach Study and Learn. Copilot Chat is not available for students under 13.

That makes enabling it a shared decision. You set the learning priorities; your technical leaders hold the controls. Bring them the evidence and discuss whether enabling Copilot Chat is appropriate for your institution. A strong place to start the conversation is the AI in Education report.

Why this matters for the students you serve

The stakes reach well past this term. LinkedIn research finds that about 70% of the skills used in most jobs will change between 2015 and 2030, with AI as the catalyst. The share of job postings that require AI literacy also rose sixfold in a single year.⁴ Students recognize this shift as well. In our research, 79% of students say that knowing how to use AI effectively and responsibly matters for their future, and 87% of educators and leaders agree. Giving students access to learning-first AI experiences can help them develop the skills needed to use AI thoughtfully and responsibly.⁵

Turn on the AI that’s built for learning

Your students are already using AI. Institutions have an opportunity to influence how AI supports learning. Study and Learn keeps the thinking with the student. It provides a learning-focused experience that may already be available through your Microsoft 365 Education environment once the appropriate settings are configured. Show your technical leaders the research and ask them to turn on Copilot Chat.

^{1, 2, 3, 5} Microsoft Education. AI in Education: A Microsoft Special Report. 2026. Available at: AI in Education Report.
⁴ LinkedIn Work Change Report (2025), cited in AI in Education: A Microsoft Special Report, Microsoft Education. 2026, Available at: AI in Education Report.