School bags, uniforms, and notebooks are making their way back into homes across the UAE. This year, another question is likely to follow many students back into the classroom — what should they actually be using AI for?
Students begin the 2026-27 academic year on August 31 under the UAE’s approved academic calendar. Artificial intelligence is also no longer something sitting entirely outside the classroom, with AI introduced as a formal subject across UAE public schools from kindergarten to Grade 12.
But using AI for schoolwork does not necessarily mean asking a chatbot to write an essay or solve a homework question. Previously, Khaleej Times reported that approaches already differ across UAE schools. Some allow supervised or teacher-led use of generative AI, while others restrict access to public tools or require students to use approved school platforms. Schools have also stressed fact-checking and protecting student data.
For families preparing for the new term, that leaves a simple distinction: AI can help a student understand the work, or it can simply do the work.
Here are five ways to keep it on the useful side of that line.
1. Ask it to explain what you did not understand in class
Sometimes the problem is not that a student has no answer. It is that the explanation in a textbook or lesson simply did not click. AI tools can explain the same concept again using simpler language, a different example or smaller steps.
A student struggling with photosynthesis, for example, could ask: “Explain photosynthesis to me at Grade 8 level. Use a simple real-life example, then ask me three questions to check whether I understood it.”
If the explanation is still confusing, ask it to try another way. ChatGPT’s Study Mode and Gemini’s Guided Learning are both designed around this kind of step-by-step learning, including asking questions rather than immediately supplying a final answer.
2. Turn your own notes into a quiz
A notebook full of highlighted pages can create the feeling that revision is happening even when very little information is being recalled. AI can turn those notes into questions instead.
Students can paste or upload their own lesson material and ask to be tested on it one question at a time.
Try this: “Quiz me on these notes with 10 questions. Ask one question at a time and do not show me the answer until I respond. At the end, tell me which topics I got wrong.”
Both ChatGPT and Gemini support using course material to generate questions, quizzes or study guides.
3. When stuck on homework, ask for one hint
There is a considerable difference between asking AI to solve a maths question and asking it to help you get past the step where you are stuck. Students can tell the chatbot from the beginning that they do not want the final answer.
Try this: “Do not solve this question for me. Look at my work so far and give me one hint about what I should try next.”
If that does not help, ask for another hint.
For maths and science problems in particular, the student can also ask the chatbot to explain why a particular step is necessary before continuing. The point is to get moving again without removing the part of the homework that requires the student to think.
4. Make it check your work instead of writing it
Rather than asking a chatbot to produce the first draft of an essay, report or presentation, students can complete their own attempt and then ask the tool to criticise it.
Try this: “Do not rewrite my paragraph. Identify the three weakest parts, explain what is wrong with them and ask me questions that will help me improve them myself.”
The same idea works across subjects. A student learning a language can ask AI to point out where grammatical errors appear without immediately correcting them. A maths student can submit their working and ask it to identify the first step where the calculation went wrong.
The first attempt remains the student’s.
5. Find out what you actually need to revise
“Study science tonight” is a plan, technically. It is not a particularly useful one. Before building a revision timetable, students can ask AI to test what they already know.
Try this: “I have an exam next week on these four topics. Test me first. Then create a five-day revision plan that gives more time to the topics I struggle with.”
That can turn a long list of chapters into something more targeted. Gemini, for example, can build quizzes from uploaded course material and use the results to help identify gaps, while ChatGPT’s Study Mode can review notes, create practice questions and work through incorrect answers.
For parents, that may be the simplest question to ask this school year: did the AI help my child understand the work, or did it simply finish it? The difference may come down less to which chatbot they use and more to what they ask it to do.
Source: Khaleej Times