1
Ask AI to turn a broad topic into five research questions, then search those questions in primary and authoritative sources.
11 AI Research Workflow Examples
Use these examples to study structure, specificity, tone, and variation. They are demonstrations—not claims about a real person or organization unless the example itself makes that explicit.
Before you copy
What to notice in the examples
A reliable workflow treats AI as a research assistant rather than a source: every factual claim must trace back to material the writer can inspect, and uncertainty or missing evidence stays visible instead of being filled with plausible invention.
- Define the human objective, source material, audience, and constraints before asking an AI system to contribute.
- Use the model for a bounded transformation or analysis task while preserving this guardrail: AI output is not a source; factual conclusions must trace to evidence the writer can inspect.
- Finish with human verification, rewriting, source checks, and accountability for the final wording rather than treating model output as publication-ready.
2
Provide your own notes and ask for a claim-to-source matrix; verify every row against the original documents.
3
Ask for alternate search terms, synonyms, and domain terminology before using a search engine or database.
4
Use AI to compare two supplied reports for disagreements, then read the relevant sections yourself.
5
Ask the model to list what evidence would be needed to support a draft claim rather than asking it to invent citations.
6
After research, ask for unresolved questions and assumptions that still need checking.
7
Do not cite an AI-generated summary when the underlying report is available; cite the report after verification.
8
For current facts, verify publication date, event date, jurisdiction, and primary source before drafting.
9
AI can help turn a broad question into search terms and claim categories, but the evidence base should still be collected from traceable sources rather than generated summaries.
10
When researching a changing policy, AI may help build a checklist of claims to verify, but the final answer should come from dated official or authoritative sources rather than the model’s memory.
11
Use AI to generate search terms and inclusion criteria, search authoritative databases independently, save the actual sources, then use AI only to compare supplied abstracts or notes before checking every claim against the originals.
Keep the underlying decision or pattern, then replace the subject, evidence, relationship, constraints, and tone with details that belong to your situation. If your final line still works after swapping only one noun, it may be too close to the example.