AI-driven feedback in EFL students’ writing: Does it enhance their skills?

Writing represents a notably intricate competence for EFL learners, with this challenge stemming from its fundamental complexity of the English writing structure that must follow established rules. To address this issue, artificial intelligence technology offers Grammarly as a writing aid that provides various features, such as review suggestions, grammar checker, and plagiarism detection. This study aims to investigate the usage of AI-driven feedback applied by Grammarly in EFL writing. This research employs a descriptive qualitative with a phenomenological approach. The primary data source was semi-structured interviews conducted with six EFL students from three different universities in Indonesia, selected using purposive sampling. The findings indicate that Grammarly is highly beneficial for improving writing skills but there are limitations in its effectiveness and continuing influence on students' writing skills. The findings also revealed that reliance on AI tools can affect critical thinking and creativity in writing.