A study of GenAI usage by Design Students Analysis of Survey Results and Journals of AI practices at the Politecnico di Milano in 2025/2026

• URL: http://arxiv.org/abs/2607.17094v1
• Date: Sun, 19 Jul 2026 06:25:07 GMT
• Title: A study of GenAI usage by Design Students Analysis of Survey Results and Journals of AI practices at the Politecnico di Milano in 2025/2026
• Abstract summary: The results of a survey on the use of GenAI by the design students of the Politecnico di Milano raises major questions around the role of AI in the Design Process.<n>The very high frequency of use of GenAI tools is concentrated in the initial stages of projects and does not affect the perception of project ownership or creativity.<n>An analysis of AI journals kept by a class during research assignments confirms the range of AI supported activities but also the limited trust in GenAI leading to systematic individual and collective verification and augmentation of outputs.
• Score: 0.0
• License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Abstract: The results of a survey on the use of GenAI by the design students of the Politecnico di Milano raises major questions around the role of AI in the Design Process. A domain specific set of questions alongside the more general purpose probes about GenAI usage, delivers insights into the particular practices that are emerging in Design. The very high frequency of use of GenAI tools is concentrated in the initial stages of projects and does not affect the perception of project ownership or creativity. An analysis of AI journals kept by a class during research assignments confirms the range of AI supported activities but also the limited trust in GenAI leading to systematic individual and collective verification and augmentation of outputs. Together, the findings suggest that design students are reflectively experimenting with how GenAI tools can contribute to their creative design process.

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