Students using AI score lower in tests, as reading skills decrease globally: OECD

The OECD's PISA 2025 results show students using AI for summarising, research and drafting score lower in examinations, especially science. They also record sharp declines in reading and maths, intensifying concern over how technology is shaping learning.

In Short

• More than 760,000 teenagers across 91 countries and economies took part
• Reading scores across OECD countries fell 28 points over a decade
• Maths performance dropped 22 points, signalling broader learning weaknesses globally

Imagine a student facing a difficult chapter before an exam. Instead of reading it, thinking through it and making notes, they ask an artificial intelligence chatbot to summarise it in seconds. The answer is ready. The effort is over. But what if that convenience is also costing them something?

The latest Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2025 results from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development have raised exactly this concern.

The assessment of more than 760,000 15-year-olds across 91 countries and economies has found that student performance has continued to weaken, particularly in reading and mathematics.

The findings show a worrying relationship between how students use AI and how they perform. Students using AI for specific school tasks such as summarising texts, conducting preliminary research or drafting assignments scored lower in science than students who did not use AI. The difference was about 20 points, roughly equivalent to a year of schooling.

THE READING PROBLEM WAS ALREADY THERE

The bigger warning, however, goes beyond AI. Reading performance has fallen dramatically over the past decade.

Across OECD countries, reading scores dropped 28 points between 2015 and 2025, while mathematics fell by 22 points. Reading also recorded a 16-point decline among non-OECD participants.

The problem is not simply that students are reading less. They are also becoming less careful readers. The share of “hasty readers”, students who read quickly but give incorrect answers, almost doubled between 2018 and 2025.

The OECD report says the decline is particularly worrying because students are losing skills needed to evaluate information, connect ideas and think critically.

This matters even more in the age of AI, when students are surrounded by instant answers, social media feeds and enormous amounts of information.

AI IS NOT THE VILLAIN, HOW STUDENTS USE IT MATTERS

The OECD report has also stressed that AI use is not automatically harmful.

In fact, students who use AI moderately to help them learn can perform slightly better than those who use it rarely or intensively. Students who are taught how to assess the quality of AI-generated information also tend to perform better.

Across OECD countries, 46 per cent of students use AI chatbots weekly or more to help them learn. The report suggests that the difference lies in whether AI supports thinking or replaces it.

That distinction is important for Indian classrooms too. For students using AI for homework, projects and exam preparation, the question is no longer whether the technology should exist. It is whether it is helping them understand something or simply helping them finish it.

THE SKILL STUDENTS CANNOT OUTSOURCE

The OECD's message is straightforward: learning requires students to do the thinking themselves. AI can provide feedback, personalised practice and support, but it should not replace the mental effort involved in understanding a problem.

The latest PISA results therefore offer a lesson bigger than test scores. As technology becomes better at producing answers, schools may need to put even greater emphasis on deep reading, reasoning, critical thinking and evaluating information.

The future-ready student may not be the one who knows how to get the fastest AI answer, but the one who knows when to question it, check it and think beyond it.

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