Generative AI can be a helpful tool at many stages of the research process. It can support students as they learn core research skills, and it can also assist with more advanced, in-depth projects intended for publication. Many library databases now include their own AI-powered “Research Assistants,” which can streamline and enhance several common research steps.
That said, generative AI isn’t perfect. It can produce biased results or even “hallucinate” information (see the Ethics of AI section of this guide). Always double-check what it provides—especially citations—to be sure the sources actually exist and the details are correct.
Generative AI can help with article searching by acting like a conversational research assistant. Instead of entering a single keyword into a database, a student can describe their topic in natural language and have the AI:
Suggest relevant keywords and subject terms they might not have thought of.
Refine or broaden a search by recommending synonyms, related concepts, or more specific angles.
Translate a research question into database-friendly search strings.
Summarize what’s available on a topic based on search results, helping the student decide which articles to open first.
Highlight gaps or emerging themes from the available literature to guide further searching.
Many library databases now include AI-powered “search assistants” that can walk users through this process.
That said, AI-generated search strategies should still be tested and adjusted manually to make sure important sources aren’t missed. Search a topic that you know a lot about and see what generative AI answers, is it correct? Test your AI to see if it actually knows what it's talking about.
Generative AI can be great for brainstorming because it’s designed to rapidly generate a wide range of ideas based on a prompt. For a student starting a research paper, it can:
Expand perspectives – Suggest angles, themes, or subtopics they may not have considered.
Overcome writer’s block – Provide a quick starting point so they’re not staring at a blank page.
Organize thoughts – Offer ways to group related ideas, outline potential arguments, or highlight key questions.
Adapt to the student’s needs – Respond to follow-up prompts to refine ideas toward a specific topic, scope, or assignment requirements.
It works best as a springboard rather than a finished product—helping students think creatively while still requiring them to apply their own critical thinking and research skills.
A student could use generative AI to summarize research in a few practical ways, for example:
Pull out themes or trends from multiple sources to see where the research overlaps or diverges.
Create a plain-language summary of complex academic writing so they can better understand it themselves (or explain it to others).
Generate bullet-point outlines of each section in a study—methods, results, and discussion—for easier note-taking.
Compare and contrast two papers by asking AI to highlight similarities, differences, or gaps in the research.
Because generative AI can miss key points or introduce errors, you always need to confirm the accuracy of summaries by reviewing the original sources. Using generative AI should never replace reading the full article, especially when it’s part of a class assignment.