Percepción de los Estudiantes Universitarios sobre la Inteligencia Artificial en la Escritura Académica

Abstract

Justification: Artificial intelligence has transformed the way students produce texts, raising concerns about autonomy, quality, and originality. Objective: To identify and describe the attitudes, experiences, and expectations of university students regarding the use of AI tools in academic writing. Methodology: A mixed, descriptive, and exploratory approach was applied, using a non-experimental cross-sectional design. A total of 355 students from three private universities in Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas, Ecuador, participated. A structured questionnaire, with validated content (CVI = 1.00) and internal consistency (ω = 0.83), was used to assess frequency of use, perceived usefulness, and impact of AI, complemented by open-ended questions to expand and contextualize the information obtained. Results: Most students are familiar with and use AI tools such as grammar checkers, plagiarism detectors, writing assistants, citation generators, and translators. They reported improvements in text organization, clarity, coherence, comprehension of complex materials, and self-editing. Reasons for using AI include efficiency, access to information, and support in writing, while concerns relate to loss of autonomy, lack of originality, and ethical risks. Conclusion: AI complements students’ skills, enhances text quality, and optimizes writing processes, provided its use is critical and controlled.