Homework in the time of AI: do we still need to struggle?

AI today has control over our lives, more than you know and except. Even more in education. In education it is used by teachers as well as students to a great extent. And both use it to make their work easy, apparently.

Teachers now use AI to design lesson plans, grade assignments, and track student performance. Students, on the other hand, increasingly lean on AI tools to help with essays, problem-solving, and research. But what we  want to focus on is how students use AI, whether it is right, wrong or just not correctly justified. 

At first glance, this seems like progress: both sides benefit from efficiency and reduced workload. But beneath the convenience lies an important question, if homework is meant to challenge students, to teach perseverance and problem-solving, then what happens when AI eliminates that struggle?

Homework is  more than just a series of questions at the end of a textbook. Its purpose  is to make sure students remember and actually learn and apply the things learned in class later to questions in the homework. Struggling with a math problem, rewriting an essay can often lead to a learning one never forgets. It teaches patience, problem solving abi;tyy and also independence to study and understand. Yet, today with such easy access to AI that gives ready summaries, equations solved in seconds, or essay drafts at the click of a button, the role of homework is questioned. 

If students rely on AI to do tasks without engaging their minds and thinking, they may lose the skills homework was designed to develop. A perfectly written AI-generated essay might look impressive, but it doesn’t guarantee that the student has learned to create arguments, analyse sources, or express ideas in their own way. AI could provide relief, sparing students from hours of work. But “productive struggle” , the kind that stretches the mind just enough to foster growth, remains irreplaceable. 

The challenge for educators, then, is not to banish AI from homework but to rethink what homework with AI can be. Imagine assignments that ask students to critique an AI-generated summary rather than write one from scratch, or to identify where the AI falls short in solving a complex problem. In this way, AI becomes a partner, not a shortcut, and the struggle shifts from generating information to evaluating, questioning, and applying it. This kind of struggle is less about repetition and more about reasoning the very skills students will need in a world where AI is ubiquitous.

So, do we still need to struggle with homework in the age of AI? The answer is yes, but differently. 

The task ahead for students and educators alike is to use AI wisely: not as a replacement for thinking, but for deeper engagement. Homework may not look the same in the coming years, but learning through challenges will remain.