  Generative AI is expected to have a vast, positive impact on education;
however, at present, this potential has not yet been demonstrated at scale at
university level. In this study, we present first evidence that generative AI
can increase the speed of learning substantially in university students. We
tested whether using the AI-powered teaching assistant Syntea affected the
speed of learning of hundreds of distance learning students across more than 40
courses at the IU International University of Applied Sciences. Our analysis
suggests that using Syntea reduced their study time substantially--by about
27\% on average--in the third month after the release of Syntea. Taken
together, the magnitude of the effect and the scalability of the approach
implicate generative AI as a key lever to significantly improve and accelerate
learning by personalisation.
