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.

翻译：本文报告了一项针对日本83名MBA学位论文学生（目标群体230人，回复率36.1%）的调查，该调查在论文评审结束后进行，旨在探究生成式AI的使用情况。AI的使用近乎普遍：95.2%的学生报告至少使用了AI，77.1%的学生报告频繁使用。学生在完整的科研写作流程——文献综述、草拟初稿和遇到瓶颈时寻求建议——中均借助AI，并报告了以更清晰的论证和结构（82.3%）、更好的修改质量（73.4%）以及更快的写作速度（70.9%）为主的好处，其中平均感知质量提升评分为6.27分（满分7分）。对于输出准确性（75.9%）和引文处理的担忧，与这些收益并存。在将研究型智能体GAMER PAT与其他AI进行比较的受访者中，其在深化探究和结构组织方面的偏好显著（精确二项检验p值均小于0.05）。对后续访谈的初步定性分析进一步揭示了学生在论文各阶段活跃的认知警觉策略和差异化的工具使用模式。核心启示不在于采纳本身，而在于教育挑战向验证、来源治理和AI工具设计的转变——GAMER PAT提供了初步证据，表明研究型支撑体系具有重要意义。