Digital Education Council survey finds 88% of students and 77% of faculty now use AI, with US and Canada faculty pulling back
A Digital Education Council survey of 45,398 people in 35 countries found 88% of students and 77% of faculty now use AI, up 16 points from 2025.
Photo by Yan Krukau on Pexels
A survey of 45,398 students and faculty across 35 countries, published by the Digital Education Council (DEC) in early July 2026, found that 88% of students now use AI in their learning and 77% of faculty use it in their teaching, up 16 percentage points from 2025 for both groups combined. The “AI in Higher Education Global Survey 2026” drew 27,284 student responses and 18,114 faculty responses, which DEC describes as one of the largest and most geographically diverse datasets on AI adoption in higher education assembled to date.
Who is behind the survey
DEC is an industry and university membership network founded in Singapore in March 2024, initiated by edtech accelerator SuperCharger Ventures; DEC chief executive Alessandro Di Lullo is a co-founder of that firm. The council counts more than 130 institutional members across over 30 countries, including Bocconi University, Singapore Management University and Tecnológico de Monterrey, and has a commercial partnership with education publisher Pearson. Its survey data is collected on an opt-in basis through participating member institutions rather than through an independently audited random sample, a methodology consistent with other industry benchmark surveys but distinct from peer-reviewed academic research. The report was authored by Di Lullo, DEC president Danny Bielik, and the organization’s research team.
Where faculty intent is falling, and where guidance is missing
The survey found sharp regional divergence in how faculty feel about AI’s growth. In the US and Canada, faculty intent to keep using AI declined 9 percentage points, from 76% in 2025 to 67% in 2026, the lowest of any region DEC tracked. Only 26% of faculty in the US and Canada said they were excited about AI’s potential to make learning more effective, compared with 57% of faculty in the Asia-Pacific region, according to DEC.
Guidance gaps show up on both sides of the classroom. DEC’s report states that only 29% of students believe their instructors are well equipped to guide them on AI use, a figure that falls to 17% among students in the US and Canada specifically. Reporting on the survey by Forbes and EdTech Innovation Hub also cites findings that 57% of students say their assessments come with inadequate AI guidance and that only 31% of faculty feel their institution meaningfully involves them in shaping AI policy; those two figures were not independently visible on DEC’s public summary of the report at the time of writing, which is otherwise the source for the statistics above.
| Detail | Value |
|---|---|
| Total responses | 45,398 (27,284 students, 18,114 faculty) |
| Countries covered | 35 |
| Students using AI in learning | 88% (up 16 points year-over-year) |
| Faculty using AI in teaching | 77% (up 16 points year-over-year) |
| Faculty AI-use intent, US & Canada | Down from 76% (2025) to 67% (2026) |
| Faculty excited about AI, APAC | 57% |
| Faculty excited about AI, US & Canada | 26% |
| Students saying instructors are well equipped to guide AI use | 29% overall; 17% in US & Canada |
| Students who would not be disappointed by an institution-wide AI ban, US & Canada | 43% |
| Faculty worried students rely on AI at the expense of their own skills | 73% |
Source: Digital Education Council, “AI in Higher Education Global Survey 2026,” published early July 2026.
A widening gap between adoption and institutional response
DEC’s report frames the core problem as a pace mismatch: “AI has moved into the mainstream of student and faculty life faster than institutions have been able to respond to it. Adoption is now widespread, but coherent practice is not,” Di Lullo and Bielik wrote. The survey also found signs of growing dependency: 22% of students said working without AI is now harder, 20% said they depend on it to produce better work, and 19% said they retain less information as a result, according to DEC.
This is DEC’s second major faculty-facing survey; its 2025 Global AI Faculty Survey, covering 1,681 faculty across 52 institutions in 28 countries, found similar readiness gaps, including that only 17% of faculty considered themselves advanced or expert users of AI and just 6% strongly agreed their institution had given them sufficient training resources, as covered in prior reporting on faculty AI training gaps at universities. The 2026 survey adds a student perspective for the first time and roughly 27 times the number of respondents, though both editions rely on the same opt-in, member-institution methodology rather than an independently drawn random sample.
About the Digital Education Council
The Digital Education Council is a membership organization for higher education institutions and industry partners focused on AI adoption in universities, founded in Singapore in March 2024 by SuperCharger Ventures, an edtech accelerator and venture firm. Its founding institutional members included Bocconi University, Singapore Management University, the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Melbourne Business School and Tecnológico de Monterrey; the network has since grown to more than 130 institutions in over 30 countries. DEC announced a strategic partnership with publisher Pearson in April 2025 and has published an annual global faculty survey since 2025, expanding this year to include students for the first time in the “AI in Higher Education Global Survey 2026.”
Sources: Digital Education Council; Forbes; EdTech Innovation Hub
Featured image: photo by Yan Krukau on Pexels (free Pexels license).
Become a Sponsor
Our website is the heart of the mission of WINSS – it’s where we share updates, publish research, highlight community impact, and connect with supporters around the world. To keep this essential platform running, updated, and accessible, we rely on the generosity of you, who believe in our work.
We offer the option to sponsor monthly, or just once choosing the amount of your choice. If you run a company, please contact us via info@winssolutions.org.
I specialize in sustainability education, curriculum co-creation, and early-stage project strategy. At WINSS, I craft articles on sustainability, transformative AI, and related topics. When I’m not writing, you’ll find me chasing the perfect sushi roll, exploring cities around the globe, or unwinding with my dog Puffy — the world’s most loyal sidekick.
