AI tools for literature reviews: a documented workflow

Direct answer

AI can assist discovery, summarization, and organization. A literature review still needs a defined question, explicit inclusion criteria, and a record of how papers were selected. Do not treat an assistant's concise answer as proof of an exhaustive search.

Match the tool to the stage

Stage	Tool to investigate	Important distinction	Checked	Source
Find a candidate collection	Elicit	Search and summaries differ from paid review and export workflows	2026-10-22	Plans
Explore a question in papers	Consensus	Free Deep reviews have a separate allowance; Pro-message sources conflict	2026-10-22	Plans
Organize selected sources	Gemini Notebook	A selected notebook is not an exhaustive literature search	2026-10-22	Notebook limits

Keep the review reproducible

Define the population, intervention or topic, date range, and eligible study types before searching. Save the search terms and dates. For each candidate paper, record why it was included or excluded, whether full text was available, and where each extracted claim appears.

A useful evidence table includes the paper identifier, design, sample, relevant result, limitations, and source passage. Ask an assistant to help organize that table, then inspect each row. A missing full text should remain an explicit limitation rather than being filled from an assumed result.

Choose around the output you need

If you must export references or retain structured screening decisions, inspect the exact paid workflow before subscribing. If you only need to orient yourself to a new topic, free search may be sufficient to start. Read Elicit vs Consensus and SciSpace vs Elicit for the documented tradeoffs.

This article covers assembling a collection. For interpreting one paper, use the research-paper reading workflow.

Sources and method

Official documentation checked 2026-10-22. This is source-based editorial analysis, not a hands-on test or benchmark. Plan and redemption rules can change. Follow the linked primary sources and confirm the current account terms before acting.