Report: How Are Researchers Using AI? Survey Reveals Pros and Cons For Science

From Nature:

Using artificial intelligence (AI) tools for processes such as preparing manuscripts, writing grant applications and peer review will become widely accepted within the next two years, suggests a survey of nearly 5,000 researchers in more than 70 countries by the publishing company Wiley.

The survey asked researchers how they are currently using generative AI tools — which include chatbots such as ChatGPT and DeepSeek — as well as how they feel about various potential applications of the technology. The results suggest that the majority of researchers see AI becoming central for scientific research and publishing (see ‘Acceptable use’). More than half of the respondents think that AI currently outperforms humans at more than 20 of the tasks given as example use cases, including reviewing large sets of papers, summarizing research findings, detecting errors in writing, checking for plagiarism and organizing citations. More half of the survey participants expect AI to become mainstream in 34 out of 43 use cases in the next two years.

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The survey polled 4,946 researchers worldwide, 27% of whom are early-career researchers. Perhaps surprisingly, says Jarrett, the results show that “people aren’t really using these tools much in their day-to-day work”. Only 45% of the first wave of respondents (1,043 researchers) said that they had actually used AI to help with their research, and the most common uses they cited were translation, proofreading and editing manuscripts (see ‘Uses of AI’).

Although 81% of these 1,043 respondents said they had used OpenAI’s ChatGPT for personal or professional purposes, only one-third had heard of other generative-AI tools such as Google’s Gemini and Microsoft’s Copilot. However, there are clear differences across countries and disciplines, with researchers in China and Germany, as well as computer scientists, being the most likely to use AI in their work.

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Key Findings Direct From Wiley

• Current AI use tends to be limited to a few core tasks, but researchers expect a rapid expansion in how AI is employed throughout the research process.
• Researchers are not only highly interested in AI, but a majority believe that AI currentlyoutperforms humansin over half of the 43 use cases tested.
• AI adoption varies across regions but barriers to greater AI use are consistent globally:
  • China (59%) and Germany (57%) lead the way in using AI for their research process compared to 44% adoption among researchers in the rest of the world.
  • Over 60% of researchers globally cite a lack of guidelines and training as a barrier to their increased use of AI.
• AI aspirations and attitudes vary across fields of study:
  • The fields of Computer Science and Medicine have the most researchers who self-identify as wanting to be early adopters of AI (44% and 38%, respectively, vs. 34% overall).
  • Life Sciences researchers are the most cautious in their approach to AI, with the smallest proportion of early adopters (27% vs. 34% overall) but are on par with other disciplines in terms of having used AI to conduct or write their research.
• Across disciplines, career phases, and regions, researchers agree that they see a role for publishers in navigating the future use of AI: around 70% want publishers to provide guidelines on what uses of AI are acceptable in the context of scholarly research and to help them avoid potential errors and pitfalls.

The  ExplanAItions  study also highlights notable barriers to AI adoption in spite of openness to AI applications, with 63% of researchers citing either a lack of clear guidelines on accepted AI uses in their field, or the need for training, as key obstacles.

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