How to Help Your Child's Studies in the AI Era

2025 has been an eventful year indeed, but perhaps the hottest topic throughout has been AI. This year has seen many advancements in the field and raised a lot of questions about its place in the workspace as well as the classroom. More than ever, it is important for teachers and parents to keep students on track with their studies and dispel the idea that AI can do the work for them.

While it has always been a good idea to keep an eye on how our children are dealing with their schoolwork, it has become all but essential as many students offload their work—and learning—to AI assistants. This not only deprives them of the opportunity to learn the work, but teachers are becoming wise to it. Students are getting into more trouble, especially as they enter tertiary education. Therefore, it is crucial that parents understand how to equip their children with the necessary skills and knowledge to work with AI while still getting the most out of their education.

What can we do?

We cannot expect our kids to ignore this technology. Everywhere we look, companies are integrating AI features into their products. Some of these features are genuinely helpful, while others are merely distractions. For example, NotebookLM can process and understand the notes you upload to it and highlight the important insights in your own work, but do you really need that turned into a 20-minute podcast?

Students need to be reminded that these tools are there to help them do their work, not to do the work for them. We must remind them that their work is valuable. Children today may look at an essay written by ChatGPT and think, ‘I can never write something that good,’ but we know they can with enough practice and encouragement.

Here are some things you can do to help your children stay engaged with their work:

·       Ask what they learnt at school

·       See if they can explain something they found interesting

·       Openly discuss the use of AI—it shouldn’t be taboo

·       If they didn’t understand something in class, ask if their friends were able to explain it to them

·       If not, getting ChatGPT or Deepseek to explain the topic differently could help it click

·       Ask what help they need if they would like to improve in a subject

We need to emphasise how important it is for students to take responsibility for their learning and remind them that they are capable. They won’t be able to use an AI assistant in their exams, nor will they have an opportunity to truly shine in their future jobs if they never learn to think independently.

AI can be a terrific tool for helping people develop skills. It can explain topics, create questions for practice, converse about different subjects, and even offer some assistance with expression. But this should be supplementary. Students can find many of these things by engaging with their friends, classmates, and teachers, while building relationships and developing their social skills. An AI cannot do that for them. So, let’s all do our best to support our kids through their academic journey and never lose hope in them.