Background <p>Artificial intelligence (AI) has been widely incorporated in the education domain for offering adaptive learning, personalized feedback and engagement to students. These technologies may help increase students learning experiences, as well as academic outcomes.</p> Aim <p>To investigate the relationship between the real-time interaction with artificial intelligence (AI) tools, learning experience, and academic performance among undergraduate nursing students.</p> Methodology <p>An analytical cross-sectional study was done in public and private nursing colleges in Peshawar, from August, 2025 till November, 2025. A total of 320 undergraduate nursing students from 1st to 4th year were selected using convenience sampling. Data were gathered by a validated questionnaire during visits in class. Spearman correlation and regression analysis methods were used to analyze the relationship between real-time interaction with AI (RTI), learning experience (LE) and academic performance (AP).</p> Results <p>Real-time interaction with AI showed a moderate positive correlation with learning experience (<i>r</i> = 0.547, <i>p</i> &lt; 0.001) and the academic performance (<i>r</i> = 0.567, <i>p</i> &lt; 0.001). A significant relationship between learning experience and academic performance (<i>r</i> = 0.667, <i>p</i> &lt; 0.001) was also found. Regression analysis showed that RTI had a significant predictive power for learning experience (β = 0.606) and academic performance (β = 0.597).</p> Conclusion <p>Learning experiences and academic performance among nursing students were positively associated with the use of AI tools and their ability to interact with them in real time. Integrating strategies that support AI-assisted learning and promoting responsible use of AI may contribute to improved student engagement and academic outcomes in nursing education.</p>