The Top 3 AI Tools Every California College Student is Using

We asked 150 college and graduate students across California a simple question: "What AI tools can you absolutely not live without?"

A quick note before we dive in: we intentionally excluded the giants like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude. We know they're essential, but our goal was to uncover the hidden gems—the specialized tools that students are using to get a real competitive edge.

Let's be real, student life is a juggling act. Between lectures, late-night study sessions, and looming deadlines, finding an edge is everything. It turns out, the secret weapon for many isn't just a steady supply of coffee—it's a new wave of AI tools designed to help them work smarter, not just harder.

The results were clear. While hundreds of apps are out there, three names kept coming up again and again. Here are the top 3 AI services that California students are using to not just survive, but thrive.

1. Jenni.ai: The Ultimate AI Writing Partner

For decades, the biggest hurdle to finishing an essay has been the dreaded blank page. Jenni.ai is the tool students are using to conquer it for good.

What it is: Jenni is an AI writing assistant that acts as a collaborative partner for everything from essays to research papers. It doesn't write the paper for you; it helps you write it better and faster by suggesting the next line, helping you rephrase sentences, and instantly finding and citing sources.

Why Students Love It: In a world where academic integrity is paramount, students appreciate that Jenni acts as a co-pilot, not an autopilot. It helps them overcome writer's block and organize their thoughts, all while keeping them in full control of the final output. It's the perfect tool for generating ideas and refining arguments without crossing the line into cheating.

2. Liner: The AI Research Assistant

The internet is a library, but it's one with billions of unorganized, dense, and often overwhelming books. Liner is the AI-powered highlighter and research copilot that brings order to that chaos.

What it is: Liner is a tool that helps users research and digest information online. As you read articles, research papers, or any web content, Liner can instantly highlight key passages, provide summaries, and answer your questions about the text. It's like having an expert research librarian working alongside you in your browser.

Why Students Love It: For research-heavy projects, Liner is a game-changer. Students told us it cuts their research time in half. It helps them quickly determine if a source is relevant, understand dense academic language, and organize their findings without having dozens of tabs open. It makes the tedious process of gathering information faster and far more efficient.

3. NextRows: The AI Agent for Complex Tasks

Sometimes, you need more than a writing or research assistant. You need an AI that can do things for you. For complex projects, students are turning to NextRows to automate the heavy lifting.

What it is: NextRows provides AI agents that can handle multi-step, complex tasks that other tools can't. Think of it as a personal AI assistant that you can delegate work to—like scraping data from multiple websites for a capstone project, analyzing a dataset for a statistics class, or even helping to debug code.

Why Students Love It: NextRows shines where other AIs stop. Students in data science, business, and computer science programs praised its ability to act as a force multiplier. Instead of spending hours on tedious data collection or wrestling with a complex script, they can assign the task to a NextRows agent. This frees them up to focus on the bigger picture—analyzing the results and drawing meaningful conclusions. It's the ultimate tool for getting a competitive edge on demanding projects.

Conclusion

The message from students is clear: the right AI tool can feel like a superpower. Whether it's breaking through writer's block with Jenni, speeding up research with Liner, or automating complex workflows with NextRows, students are leveraging AI to work smarter, not just harder. These tools aren't replacing the hard work of learning; they're augmenting it, allowing this generation to achieve more than ever before.