Scientific Access Article Recommendation | When AI Begins to Mediate Information Practices, What Are We Losing—and What Are We Gaining?

“When artificial intelligence is no longer merely a search tool, but begins to participate in the discovery, selection, interpretation, and generation of information, how exactly has the way we acquire knowledge changed?” “As AI becomes increasingly capable of understanding us, are we really getting closer to the truth of information?” “In an era when AI processes information for us, will human information practices be redefined, or will they be quietly reshaped?” These questions are becoming unavoidable new issues in the digital information society.

Sofia Stamou, a scholar from Ionian University in Greece, explores information practices after the involvement of AI in her paper “A Conceptual Framework for AI-mediated Information Practices,” published in Scientific Access. From the perspective of a conceptual framework, the paper examines AI-mediated information practices and provides a new perspective for understanding how “humans and AI jointly process information.”

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AI Is Changing More Than Just the Way We Search

In the past, we were accustomed to actively searching for keywords, browsing webpages, comparing sources, and then deciding for ourselves which information was worth trusting. However, the emergence of generative AI has significantly changed this process. Users only need to ask a question, and AI can further participate in information retrieval, content organization, summarization, knowledge interpretation, and even text generation. This means that information practices are gradually shifting from simply “interaction between people and information” toward “joint participation of humans and AI in information processing.” The question that follows is: when AI begins to participate in information practices, are we simply using a tool, or are we working with a new information intermediary to construct knowledge together? This is precisely what makes this paper worth paying attention to.From “Searching for Information” to “Processing Information Together with AI”AI-mediated information practices are not simply a matter of replacing traditional searches with a chat window. More importantly, AI may become involved in multiple stages of information activities. From formulating questions to finding information; from filtering content to reorganizing it; from understanding complex concepts to generating new expressions, AI is gradually entering the information-processing chain that was previously handled primarily by humans. This also changes the relationship between users and information. In the past, search engines were more like a gateway to the information world, through which users had to enter and search for answers themselves. AI, by contrast, is more like a conversational information intermediary: users express their needs, AI generates responses based on their instructions, and the two sides further refine the results through continuous interaction. Information acquisition is therefore no longer simply about “what we find,” but increasingly about “how we obtain information together with AI.”

The More Convenient AI Becomes, the More We Need to Ask “Why Should We Believe It?”

Convenience often comes with new challenges. When AI can generate a well-structured and fluent response within seconds, users may be more likely to accept the sense of “certainty” conveyed by the information. Yet fluency does not inherently mean accuracy, and completeness does not necessarily mean that the information has been sufficiently verified. This presents new challenges to traditional information literacy. In the past, people needed to ask: “Is this webpage trustworthy?” In an AI-mediated information environment, they also need to ask: “How was this response generated?” “What information is it based on?” “Should I verify it?” “Has AI’s involvement changed my original process of evaluating information?” Therefore, information literacy in the age of AI may no longer be limited to “knowing how to search,” but may increasingly involve “knowing how to ask questions, evaluate, verify, and reflect.”

A Broader Social Change Is Taking Place

From students searching for academic materials to researchers organizing literature; from ordinary users seeking everyday knowledge to professionals processing complex information, AI is entering an increasing number of information-related scenarios. The impact of this development is not limited to improved efficiency. It may also reshape the way people formulate questions, develop habits of information selection, and form their understanding of the world. As more and more people become accustomed to having AI summarize, organize, and explain information, an important question emerges: if we increasingly rely on AI to process information, will information literacy in the future mean “knowing the answer ourselves,” or “knowing how to find the answer together with AI”? This may be the deeper significance of studying AI-mediated information practices.

In the Age of AI, What Really Needs to Be Upgraded Is Human Information Literacy

AI can change the speed at which information is disseminated, but it cannot take over all human judgment. Faced with an increasingly complex information environment, people need to rethink their relationship with technology. We can certainly use AI to improve efficiency and allow it to help us process vast amounts of information, but at the same time, we need to remain sensitive to sources, processes, contexts, and conclusions. Because what truly matters may never be simply “how much AI knows,” but “how humans can maintain independent information judgment after AI becomes involved.”

Sofia Stamou’s study shifts our attention from artificial intelligence technology itself to a more fundamental question: when AI becomes an important participant in information practices, where will the relationship between humans and information go? Perhaps the real challenge in the age of AI is not simply the speed at which information can be acquired. It is whether, in an era when machines are becoming increasingly capable of answering questions, we can still know what to ask, why we should believe something, and when we should rethink it.

So, as AI gradually becomes an important “intermediary” through which we acquire and process information, what do you think will be the most important information skill in the future: the ability to search, or the ability to judge?

The study was published in Scientific Access

How to cite this paper

Sofia Stamou. (2026) A Conceptual Framework for AI-mediated Information Practices. Scientific Access, 2(2), 84-94.

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.26855/sa.2026.06.002

https://www.hillpublisher.com/ArticleDetails/7075