Turnitin reportedly sees sharp rise in AI-heavy essays as Clarity data shapes policy debate
Turnitin has reportedly recorded a significant increase in highly AI-generated student writing, according to new data released by the company, as institutions continue to refine AI policies.
Turnitin says that since October 2025, approximately 15 percent of essay submissions to its latest AI detection tool contained more than 80 percent AI-generated writing. By comparison, between April and August 2023, an average of three percent of submissions reached that threshold when its original AI detector launched.
The figures, based on English-language submissions, suggest generative AI is now embedded in student workflows at scale, shifting the focus from simple detection toward transparency and structured guidance.
AI-generated writing increases, company says
According to Turnitin, the rise reinforces the need for clearer frameworks around responsible AI use in education. Chris Caren, CEO of Turnitin, says students and educators are “craving clear guidance on when and how to use AI.”
Caren adds: “Through our writing transparency tool Turnitin Clarity, we’ve gathered months of insights into how students are engaging with our AI assistant, and it’s clear they are hungry for feedback during the writing process. With educators under increasing pressure to do more with less, we are dedicated to building solutions that make assessing the process and the final product easier for today’s educators.”
Turnitin Clarity, launched in July 2025, reportedly tracks the writing process from draft to submission. Educators can enable an AI assistant that provides guidance but refuses to write assignments for students. The tool also checks for AI-generated writing and copied material while simplifying assessment workflows.
Turnitin positions the product as moving beyond detection alone toward process-level transparency.
Students seek feedback but prompting remains inconsistent
In analyzing the first three months of Clarity use, Turnitin says it identified patterns in student prompting behavior. Nearly a third, 29 percent, of prompts reviewed across two months were reportedly requests for review, judgment, or general feedback. Examples cited by the company include:
“Is this good?”
“Is this a strong conclusion?”
“What can I fix?”
Turnitin also reports that 94 percent of students wrote their own prompts rather than using pre-written suggestions within the tool.
However, the company says many prompts lacked specificity. More than half of prompts in the sample were described as generic, without clear constraints or goals. Only 36 percent of prompts in the feedback category were considered effective, meaning they included details, context, clear parameters, or demonstrated iterative thinking.
The data suggests that prompting may need to be taught explicitly as part of AI literacy.
Between October 2025 and February 2026, Turnitin found that an average of 14.8 percent of English-language submissions to its latest AI detection tool contained 80 percent or more AI-generated writing. During the first rollout of its original detector in 2023, that figure reportedly averaged 3.3 percent.
The increase underscores how quickly AI-assisted writing has moved into mainstream academic practice. For institutions, the debate now appears to center less on whether AI is being used and more on how that use is defined, monitored, and incorporated into assessment frameworks.
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