The Mediating Role of AI Tool Use in Academic Stress and Productivity among Pakistani Female University Students

Abstract

Artificial intelligence (AI) tools are becoming more common in the academic lives of university students and their association with academic stress and productivity are not well documented in developing countries. This study aimed to explore the usage of AI tools and its relationship with the reduction of academic stress and improvement of academic productivity among female undergraduate students in Pakistan. A cross sectional survey design with a quantitative approach was used. A 34-item questionnaire was used to collect data from 291 students of four academic departments of two public women's universities. The three main scales had high internal consistency with Cronbach's alpha ranging from .921 to .924. Data were analyzed by descriptive statistics and Pearson product–moment correlation with SPSS. The overall response for students' use of AI tools was at a high level, with the means of the items ranging from 3.82 to 4.12. The most highly rated tools were Microsoft Copilot and Google Gemini, and students frequently alternated between the platforms as needed for their academic tasks. The perceived stress-reduction scores ranged from 3.82 to 4.12, with the highest scores being for workload manageability and reduced deadline pressure. Productivity scores were between 3.80 and 4.18, and the highest perceived benefits were: completion of tasks faster and work was more efficient. Perceived stress reduction (r = .370 – .654, p < .01) and productivity improvement (r = .294 – .559, p < .01) were positively and significantly related to AI-tool use. The overall stress reduction was also positively correlated with overall productivity (r = .516, p < .01). The results indicate that meaningful use of AI could be beneficial for academic task management and to students' perceived coping with academic demands. The data are cross sectional and self-reported, however, and do not allow for causal interpretation.