Children using AI more for homework according to parents

A new report by the Parent Voice Project has found a significant increase in the number of parents suspecting that their children are using AI tools to complete their homework.

The report polled around 6,000 parents in 2025 and a further 2,000 ten months later. The percentage of parents saying that their children had used AI to help with homework rose from 47% in 2025 to 57% in 2026, while the proportion who said use of AI has not happened dropped from 41% to 32%.

Some of the data suggests that reporting of artificial intelligence use depends on parents’ awareness of AI in general, with older parents less likely to suspect the use of AI for homework, but also less likely to be sure either way.

There is also a variation across areas of the country, with 60% of parents in London suspecting AI use for homework, compared to 41% in the South-West of England. Parents with children in private schools are also more likely to believe their child is using AI (60%), compared to only 42% of parents with children at state school.

One parent quoted in the report said: “I’ve let me son do it a couple of times with subjects I know he’s not going to do well in, so like a Philosophy thing, it’s just easy and he can just get it done.”

A survey of teachers earlier this year found that 66% of educators believed that the critical thinking of pupils had declined because of the use of AI.

The report comments: “These findings show that AI is becoming a significant tool for completing homework, but that parents are still working out what this means in practice. Many already know, or suspect, that their children are using AI tools, and more recent polling suggests that this is increasing quickly … The challenge for schools and families is therefore not simply whether children use AI, but whether there is a shared understanding of when it supports learning, when it replaces it, and how children can be helped to use it responsibly.”

Fiona Forbes, founder of the Parent Voice Project, said: “What parents are evidently telling us is that both they and their children, like the rest of society, are struggling to work out the best use of AI. The staggering jump in its use suggests that the school system needs to get across this challenge as soon as possible and start working with parents on advice and guidance, or the whole idea of homework will soon be worse than useless.”