The recent advance in technology has brought a number of applications and websites completely focused on solving a variety of mathematical problems that, until recently, could only be solved by hand. This technological upheaval forces us to look for new exercises and topics that can still challenge our students.

In this work, we present the results of a survey that asked each participant to solve mathematical problems using any technological tool of their choice, such as advanced calculators, mathematics software, or artificial intelligence. Participants were then asked to report which tool they used, the time it took to find the answer, and whether the answer was correct. The survey consisted of 10 questions categorized by difficulty (low, medium, hard) and type (conceptual, abstract, algorithmic)—tags that were not shown to the participants.

We administered this survey to 64 freshman undergraduate students. Our results suggest a significant shift may be necessary in how we approach teaching mathematics. Specifically, our findings indicate a need to move away from purely numeric-computational tasks and towards topics and exercises that emphasize mathematical proofs, logical reasoning, and more abstract mathematical concepts. These insights represent the initial steps toward identifying the essential mathematical skills for the 21st century.

Keywords: Technology, mathematics, education.