Preply Report: 92% of Gen Z Use AI for Study, 71% See No Real Improvement

EdTech startup Preply released The Progress Report 2026, surveying 5,050 working professionals across nine countries: the US, UK, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Poland, Argentina and Japan. The report says 92% of Gen Z use AI to assist their studies, but 71% report no real improvement, and 57% often cannot apply what they learn in practice. 68% of Gen Z stopped studying entirely at least once in the past year, versus 38% of Gen X.

The survey moves the AI education discussion from whether people use AI to whether that use translates into practical skills, which is directly relevant to parents, teachers and AI education product teams: tools lower the cost of finding and organizing information, but the report's data show this does not automatically build application confidence. It should be noted that this is a Preply survey of 5,050 working professionals across nine countries, not a student sample, and it provides no independent research or quantified learning-outcome conclusions, so it cannot be used to claim AI improves or harms academic performance. AI education products that only optimize information access and summarization may not close the Progress Gap; design may need more practice and application components. Teachers and parents can focus on the share of active practice in learning rather than study time or AI usage frequency alone.