IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/joaced/v72y2025ics0748575125000338.html

Exploring the impact of generative AI on student learning in accounting

Author

Listed:
  • Zhou, Aner
  • Luo, Yan

Abstract

The rapid development of generative artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming accounting practices and education. This study provides descriptive evidence regarding how accounting students currently engage with AI tools in their learning experience. Survey data from 259 accounting students and 126 non-accounting students at a four-year public university in the U.S. reveals that 80 % of students use AI at least about once a week or more, primarily for help with difficult concepts. Students introduced to AI from their peers and friends feel more encouraged to use it than the rest of the students. While accounting and non-accounting students share many similar usage patterns, accounting students are less likely to use AI for creativity tasks or to accept AI-generated outputs without questioning their accuracy, bias, or currency, especially when it comes to decision making. Among the accounting disciplines, students are more likely to use AI for AIS. Both accounting and non-accounting students believe AI is able to reduce repetitive tasks and perceive AI with a positive impact on their learning experience, including improving GPA, helping with knowledge acquisition, making learning more enjoyable, and saving learning time. Such perceived benefits do vary by usage frequency and student GPA. This study highlights the importance of incorporating AI into accounting education to enhance student learning experience. It complements prior research focusing on educators and professionals, offering insights from students’ perspectives.

Suggested Citation

  • Zhou, Aner & Luo, Yan, 2025. "Exploring the impact of generative AI on student learning in accounting," Journal of Accounting Education, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:joaced:v:72:y:2025:i:c:s0748575125000338
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jaccedu.2025.100982
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0748575125000338
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jaccedu.2025.100982?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Beverley Jackling & Paul De Lange, 2009. "Do Accounting Graduates' Skills Meet The Expectations of Employers? A Matter of Convergence or Divergence," Accounting Education, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 18(4-5), pages 369-385.
    2. Haugland Sundkvist, Charlotte & Kulset, Ellen M., 2024. "Teaching accounting in the era of ChatGPT – The student perspective," Journal of Accounting Education, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
    3. Nguyen Trong Co & Lam Cao Khanh, 2025. "Accounting Estimates in Financial Statement Audit," Business and Economic Research, Macrothink Institute, vol. 15(4), pages 119-128, December.
    4. Ballantine, Joan & Boyce, Gordon & Stoner, Greg, 2024. "A critical review of AI in accounting education: Threat and opportunity," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).
    5. Min Bai & Pamela Kent & Sujin Kim & Shan Li, 2025. "The role of accounting conservatism in corporate innovation," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 65(2), pages 1091-1127, June.
    6. Claire Murong Cui & Julie A. Harrison & Frederick Ng & Paul Rouse, 2025. "Accounting choices in data envelopment analysis," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 63(2), pages 219-237, April.
    7. Marc Eulerich & Aida Sanatizadeh & Hamid Vakilzadeh & David A. Wood, 2024. "Is it all hype? ChatGPT’s performance and disruptive potential in the accounting and auditing industries," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 29(3), pages 2318-2349, September.
    8. Churyk, Natalie Tatiana & Eaton, Tim V. & Matuszewski, Linda J., 2024. "Accounting education literature review (2023)," Journal of Accounting Education, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    9. Yanyan Wang & Liwei Fan & Ran An & Lisheng Yu, 2025. "Strategic alliance, trust and accounting performance stability," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 65(2), pages 1585-1613, June.
    10. Wood, David A. & Achhpilia, Muskan P. & Adams, Mollie T. & Aghazadeh, Sanaz & Akinyele, Kazeem & Akpan, Mfon & Allee, Kristian D. & Allen, Abigail M. & Almer, Elizabeth D. & Ames, Daniel & Arity, Vikt, 2023. "The ChatGPT artificial intelligence chatbot: How well does it answer accounting assessment questions?," Other publications TiSEM b4a29b3e-18a1-4259-a70c-d, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    11. Meng Li & Yan Liu, 2025. "Mental Accounting in Allocating Capacity," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 27(5), pages 1497-1514, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Blondeel, Eva & Bullock, Taylor & Gaskin, James & Schuetzler, Ryan & Serre, Rachel & Steffen, Jacob & Wells, Taylor M. & Wood, David A., 2025. "The effects of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) on learning in an accounting data analytics course," Journal of Accounting Education, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    2. Ionela-Corina CHERSAN, 2025. "The Impact Of Artificial Intelligence On Accounting Education," Studies in Business and Economics, Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu, Faculty of Economic Sciences, vol. 20(3), pages 107-134, December.
    3. Dong, Mengming Michael & Stratopoulos, Theophanis C. & Wang, Victor Xiaoqi, 2024. "A scoping review of ChatGPT research in accounting and finance," International Journal of Accounting Information Systems, Elsevier, vol. 55(C).
    4. Haugland Sundkvist, Charlotte & Kulset, Ellen M., 2024. "Teaching accounting in the era of ChatGPT – The student perspective," Journal of Accounting Education, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
    5. Bertomeu, Jeremy & Lin, Yupeng & Liu, Yibin & Ni, Zhenghui, 2025. "The impact of generative AI on information processing: Evidence from the ban of ChatGPT in Italy," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 80(1).
    6. Akhilesh Chandra & Charles F. Malone, 2024. "State of The Dotcom-Era Accounting Information Systems (AIS) Faculty and Implications for The Artificial Intelligence (AI)-Era," Accounting and Management Information Systems, Faculty of Accounting and Management Information Systems, The Bucharest University of Economic Studies, vol. 23(4), pages 740-792, December.
    7. Ali, Hassnian & Zafar, Muhammad Bilal & Aysan, Ahmet Faruk, 2025. "Generative AI in finance: Replicability, methodological contingencies, and future research directions," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 86(PF).
    8. Churyk, Natalie Tatiana & Eaton, Tim V. & Matuszewski, Linda J., 2025. "Accounting education literature review (2024)," Journal of Accounting Education, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    9. Susan O'Shea, 2017. "Characteristics and Skills Necessary in Accountancy," International Journal of Business and Management, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 13(1), pages 1-22, December.
    10. Bernadette Smith & William Maguire & Helen Haijuan Han, 2018. "Generic skills in accounting: perspectives of Chinese postgraduate students," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 58(2), pages 535-559, June.
    11. Modestino Matarazzo, Filippo Sciarrone, Roberto Caldelli, and Barbara Martini, 2025. "The Impact of Artificial Intelligence and Generative AI in Education: A~Review~of The Post-Chatgpt Era," MakeLearn 2025: Accelerated Innovation (AI); Sustainability for Better Humanity,, ToKnowPress.
    12. Babajide Oyewo & Venancio Tauringana & Babajide Moses Omikunle & Olusola Owoyele, 2022. "The global management accounting principles (GMAP) and the relationship between organizational design elements," Accounting Research Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 35(5), pages 637-659, March.
    13. Ballantine, Joan & Boyce, Gordon & Stoner, Greg, 2024. "A critical review of AI in accounting education: Threat and opportunity," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).
    14. Wu, Jie & Liu, Jipeng & Pan, Yinghao, 2025. "Modeling a nonradial measure in nonconvex global technology for banking sector: Evidence from commercial banks in China," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 106(C).
    15. Talal Fawzi Alruwaili & Mahfoudh Hussein Mgammal, 2025. "The impact of artificial intelligence on accounting practices: an academic perspective," Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 12(1), pages 1-18, December.
    16. Kalin Kalev, 2023. "Preliminary analysis of employer’s required skills of accountants," Economics and computer science, Publishing house "Knowledge and business" Varna, issue 2, pages 22-42.
    17. Aldijana Bunjak & Olivier Zehnder, 2026. "Quantifying the gig economy’s evolution: A bibliometric exploration of historical patterns and future projections," Electronic Markets, Springer;IIM University of St. Gallen, vol. 36(1), pages 1-26, December.
    18. Plant, Kato & Barac, Karin & Sarens, Gerrit, 2019. "Preparing work-ready graduates – skills development lessons learnt from internal audit practice," Journal of Accounting Education, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 33-47.
    19. Zhisheng Chen, 2025. "Revolutionizing finance with conversational AI: a focus on ChatGPT implementation and challenges," Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 12(1), pages 1-11, December.
    20. Stratopoulos, Theophanis C. & Wang, Victor Xiaoqi, 2025. "Artificial intelligence and accounting research: a framework and agenda," International Journal of Accounting Information Systems, Elsevier, vol. 56(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:joaced:v:72:y:2025:i:c:s0748575125000338. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/journal-of-accounting-education .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.