This study empirically examines the prevalence, purposes, and ethical perceptions of Artificial Intelligence (AI) tool utilization among higher education students. Design/Methodology: A quantitative, cross-sectional descriptive survey was administered to 120 students spanning undergraduate and postgraduate levels across multiple academic disciplines. The collected data was analyzed using descriptive statistics and three Chi-Square Tests of Independence at a significance level of α = 0.05. Findings: The study found that ChatGPT (80.0%), Google Gemini (68.3%), and Claude (56.7%) are the dominant platforms. A significant relationship was confirmed between a student’s field of study and their dependency level (χ 2 = 18.42, p = 0.0306), between usage frequency and perception of reduced creativity (χ 2 = 21.55, p = 0.0003), and between daily time spent and verification behavior (χ 2 = 13.21, p = 0.0398). A critical verification gap was identified: only 27.5% of students consistently verify AI-generated content, while 60.8% have submitted AI-generated text with minimal editing.
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📋 How to Cite This Paper
Gaurav Naik, Ronit Pednekar, Masoom Shaikh, Usman Khan (2026). Artificial Intelligence (AI) Tools in Higher Education: An Empirical Study of Student Usage Patterns, Dependency and Ethical Perceptions. International Journal of Computer Science Engineering Techniques, 10(3), 141–148. ISSN: 2455-135X. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.20683366
