AI and the reconfiguration of scholarly inquiry: Methodological shifts in the age of generative AI.

The rapid integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) into academic research is reshaping scholarly practices, particularly in relation to literature review construction within doctoral education. This chapter presents a pedagogically embedded exploratory study conducted in a doctoral programme at the University for Foreigners of Perugia. Doctoral candidates carried out a structured project involving the development of a short literature review on language policy topics through the guided use of AI tools (e.g., Perplexity, NotebookLM, large language models). Their outputs were discussed using the ladder of feedback framework and further explored through a focus group. Findings suggest that AI facilitates rapid access to and organization of scholarly information, while raising critical issues related to evaluation, inter- pretation, and epistemic awareness. Despite the limited number of participants, the study underscores the importance of integrating AI literacy, critical reflection, and guided feedback into doctoral training to support responsible AI- assisted research practices.