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Article History

Received: 8 May 2026

Accepted: 5 October 2026

First Online: 11 October 2026

Declarations

Ethics approval and consent to participate: This study was reviewed by the Sacramento State Institutional Review Board under protocol Cayuse-25-26-75, titled “AI-powered class companions in instruction.” On October 23, 2025, the Sacramento State IRB granted a waiver of full IRB review under 45 CFR 46.104(d)(2), determining that the study qualified for exempt status as Category 2(i) research. The waiver was issued because the research involved only minimal-risk educational procedures, specifically the analysis of student coursework artifacts and exit-survey responses, recorded in such a manner that the identity of human subjects could not be readily ascertained. The protocol was approved by the Sacramento State Institutional Review Board in accordance with the Common Rule (45 CFR 46), the institutional research guidelines of California State University, Sacramento, and the ethical principles of the Declaration of Helsinki. Informed consent to participate in the study was obtained from all participants through an online consent process embedded in the Qualtrics survey instrument. Participation was voluntary, and only students who affirmatively indicated consent were included in the research analysis.

Consent for publication: Informed consent for publication of de-identified research materials and excerpts was obtained from all participants.

Use of generative AI: Claude and ChatGPT were used for brainstorming and editing. ChatGPT was also used to apply the three prespecified heuristic proxy rules to manuscript text and to calculate the manuscript-level scores reported in Table 1. The author specified the rules and did not manually reclassify individual proxy decisions after their initial application.

Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests.