5 AI tools students should use in 2025 for research, knowledge, solutions and more

Gemini (Guided Learning) for concept building
Google’s Gemini Guided Learning behaves like an interactive companion rather than a direct answer source. It asks questions to check comprehension, breaks problems into steps, and uses visual assets such as diagrams, videos and structured quizzes. Schools using Google Classroom can share guided sessions directly. This is useful when the goal is to understand a subject from first principles instead of collecting quick answers.

ChatGPT (Study Mode) for personalised tutoring
ChatGPT adds a Study Mode that explicitly shifts the objective from “solve” to “teach”. It interrogates a student’s current level, applies Socratic prompting, and works stepwise toward the answer. Students can upload lecture slides, PDF chapters or homework photos for context. If Memory is enabled, it can maintain long-horizon learning goals and adapt across sessions — acting as a consistent private tutor rather than a one-off helper.

Microsoft Copilot for work inside documents
Microsoft’s advantage is surface area. Inside Word, Copilot can draft from an outline, summarise papers and help with citations. Inside PowerPoint it can generate full decks with speaker notes. Inside Teams it turns meetings or lectures into structured summaries. The general Copilot chat can still explain topics and quiz users. For students already living in the Microsoft 365 stack, this becomes a pragmatic productivity multiplier.

Perplexity (Academic mode) for verifiable research
Perplexity positions itself as an answer engine with citations. Its Academic mode filters results to journals, papers and scholarly databases only. Every answer carries in-line citations that can be opened and verified. “Pro Search” runs deeper multi-pass searches and produces a synthesised report. Students can upload PDFs and query them inside Academic mode. For research assignments and thesis-grade work, the transparency is the core value.

Claude (Learning mode) for critical thinking discipline
Anthropic’s Claude emphasises guided thinking and intellectual hygiene. Its Learning Mode uses Socratic questioning (“what evidence supports this?”, “how would you model this?”) to drive users to trace the logic, not just accept the outcome. Claude is also strong at structural critique of drafts — judging clarity, argument and evidence rather than cosmetic wording. This is well-suited to learners who want to train reasoning, not merely finish tasks.