The pressing need to blend digital competencies with teaching practices in the 21st century has increased with the rise of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in multiple disciplines. This unprecedented advancement in technology compels educators to address unprecedented ethical and pedagogical challenges, emphasising the need for students to develop the essential skills to navigate this evolving landscape. Particularly, new generations demand the incorporation of AI to face social, academic, and professional realities in all working atmospheres, making its integration in higher education an urgent priority. This contribution illustrates a practical application of ChatGPT in writing assignments for an English for Specific Purposes (ESP) subject at a Spanish university. This study presents a framework for an action research project with the main objective of analysing students’ perceptions related to the use of AI in the educational landscape to improve writing skills. A total of 40 participants engaged in this study, with data gathered through three questionnaires designed to assess students' understanding and explore the implications of AI integration in education. After comparing the writing assignments before and after using ChatGPT, the results report some of the students’ firsthand experiences with this platform, highlighting both benefits and challenges in terms of learning autonomy, engagement, difficulty, and insight development. Particularly, students expressed their interest in understanding the appropriate use of ChatGPT within an educational setting and indicated a strong motivation to use it in the future. Moreover, the majority of participants had not previously employed ChatGPT for pedagogical purposes. This presentation may guide higher-education professors to use an action research approach within their teaching practices, while also providing several recommendations for the integration of AI technologies into the English language instruction at university. This contribution offers insights into the crucial need of the educational field to adapt to the rapidly-evolving digital educational landscape by promoting strategies that foster digital literacy and equip students with the necessary skills to face future challenges.

Keywords: Artificial Intelligence, ChatGPT, writing, ESP, action research.