Between Interest and Skill: How Students Perceive and Use AI

As AI becomes an integral part of education and the future labor market, it is important to understand how students perceive and use it. This study explores Russian university students’ attitudes toward AI and examines the relationship between their beliefs and actual skills in effectively using AI. A specially developed questionnaire was used to assess students’ conceptions of AI, covering four dimensions: interest in AI, subjective experience with AI, perceived future value of AI, and perceived risks associated with AI. Skills of using AI were measured through a practical task involving the creation of an effective prompt for a large language model to solve an authentic work-related problem. Results showed that many students struggled to create effective prompts. Those who considered themselves more experienced with using AI performed only slightly better (r = 0,20), as did students with a higher level of interest in AI (r = 0,12). Overall, the connection between attitudes and actual skills was weak. Students who perceived AI as risky tended to assign it less value for the future (r = –0,09), but this perception did not affect their interest in AI or their sense of personal experience. Ultimately, despite students’ strong interest in AI, their ability to use it effectively remains limited.