Artificial intelligence (AI) and information seeking: A comparative exploration of AI chatbots, search engines, and library resources as information sources among university students

Generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools like ChatGPT hold the capacity to tremendously impact patterns of information seeking behavior in higher education, as students rely on AI tools for a variety of tasks in their daily life. This study examines the current state of how U.S. university students perceive and use AI chatbots versus traditional online search engines and academic library resources for academic information seeking and retrieval tasks. Based on an understanding of information seeking concepts drawn from existing information behavior research and theory, an electronic survey was distributed to 236 students from diverse demographic backgrounds, measuring information source use, preference, perceived relevance, and satisfaction across AI tools, search engines, and library databases. The results of the survey suggest that, while search engines like Google remain dominant for information retrieval in higher education, generative AI tools are an increasingly significant component of students’ information worlds. Younger students and international students are especially likely to use AI for academic tasks. Students who are frequent AI users also report higher satisfaction in the information supplied by AI models. These findings are indicative of a shifting ecology of information behavior where artificial intelligence serves both as a complement and a competitor to traditional information sources like search engines and university libraries, presenting important implications for information literacy instruction, academic library services, and educators navigating AI integration in higher education.