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arXiv · 2604.02792

Generative AI Use in Professional Graduate Thesis Writing: Adoption, Perceived Outcomes, and the Role of a Research-Specialized Agent

Kenji Saito·Rei Tajika·Satoru Shibuya·Hiroshi Kanno
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Abstract

This paper reports a survey of generative AI use among 83 MBA thesis students in Japan (target population 230; 36.1% response rate), conducted after thesis examiner evaluation. AI use was nearly universal: 95.2% reported at least some use and 77.1% heavy use. Students engaged AI across the full research-writing workflow - literature review, drafting, and consultation when stuck - reporting benefits centered on clearer argument and structure (82.3%), better revision quality (73.4%), and faster writing (70.9%), with a mean perceived quality improvement of 6.27 out of 7. Concerns about output accuracy (75.9%) and citation handling persisted alongside these gains. Among respondents who rated GAMER PAT, a research-specialized agent, against other AI, preferences significantly favored it for inquiry deepening and structural organization (both p < 0.05, exact binomial). A preliminary qualitative analysis of follow-up interviews further reveals active epistemic vigilance strategies and differentiated tool use across thesis phases. The central implication is not adoption itself but a shift in the educational challenge toward verification, source governance, and AI tool design - with GAMER PAT offering preliminary evidence that research-specialized scaffolding matters.

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Kenji Saito, Rei Tajika, Satoru Shibuya, Hiroshi Kanno. 2026-04-03. Generative AI Use in Professional Graduate Thesis Writing: Adoption, Perceived Outcomes, and the Role of a Research-Specialized Agent. https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.02792

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