Back to School Survey: 64% of Teens Not Learning About AI at School

Survey by Junior Achievement Finds That 60 Percent of Teens Say Main Purpose of Education is to Prepare for Future Job or Career

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo., Aug. 5, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- A new survey by Junior Achievement shows that nearly two-thirds of teens (64%) report that their schools or teachers do not teach about or encourage the use of AI as a learning tool. In the same survey, 60 percent of teens believe the main purpose of education is to prepare students for future jobs and careers. Research shows that AI is expected to have a pronounced impact on employment in the coming years. The survey of 1,008 teens between 13 and 17 was conducted by Big Village between July 1 – July 6, 2025.

"AI is expected to transform the world of work in the coming years," said Tim Greinert, President of Junior Achievement USA. "At Junior Achievement, we are committed to working with our partners in education, not just to emphasize AI literacy, but to promote those transferable skills and competencies, like creative thinking, collaboration, communication, and self-direction, needed to navigate what's to come."

Other key survey findings include:

• 68% of teens agree that schools are doing a good job of preparing students for the jobs and careers of the future.
• 42% of teens report they have used AI to do school assignments instead of doing the work themselves. This is up from 30% in a similar survey in 2024.
• 55% of teens think using AI to do their homework instead of doing it themselves is cheating, statistically unchanged from 2024 (54%).

Methodology
This Youth CARAVAN survey was conducted by Big Village among a sample of 1,008 13-17-year-olds. This survey was live from July 1 – July 6, 2025.

Respondents for this survey were selected from among those who have volunteered to participate in online surveys and polls. All sample surveys and polls may be subject to multiple sources of error, including, but not limited to sampling error, coverage error, error associated with nonresponse, error associated with question wording and response options, and post-survey weighting and adjustments. It is nationally representative with set quotas based on census data. The 1,008 completes are all who qualified and completed based on the demographic quota requirements. The MoE is +/- 3.1%.

About Junior Achievement USA
Junior Achievement is the world's largest organization dedicated to giving young people the knowledge and skills they need to own their economic success, plan for their future, and make smart academic and economic choices. JA learning experiences are delivered by corporate and community volunteers and provide relevant, hands-on experiences that give students from kindergarten through high school knowledge and skills in financial literacy, work readiness, and entrepreneurship. Additionally, Junior Achievement is expanding its reach to 18-to-25-year-olds to provide young adults with critical life skills, as well as to pre-K youth to ensure children get a solid head start. Today, JA reaches more than 4.6 million students per year in nearly 100 markets across the United States as part of 19.9 million students served by operations in more than 100 other countries worldwide. Junior Achievement USA is a member of JA Worldwide. For more information, visit www.ja.org.

SOURCE Junior Achievement USA