Generative AI for Research: Finding Literature

Are you a researcher wondering how AI-enabled tools can be used to help find existing literature? Instructors will introduce key concepts behind generative AI, to help researchers understand how these technologies work and how they differ from traditional search tools.

Participants will work with Waterloo’s institutional subscription to Microsoft Copilot to learn when these tools are useful and when traditional database searching remains essential.

By the end of the workshop, participants will be able to:

• Identify where generative AI tools can provide support throughout the different stages of the literature searching workflow.
• Differentiate between types of AI tools for literature discovery.
• Compare generative AI outputs with database search results to evaluate accuracy, completeness, and bias.