Research assistants help you find papers, summarise findings, and keep sources straight. The right mix depends on whether you need web answers, academic graphs, or chat-with-your-PDFs.
Comparison
- Perplexity โ best everyday AI search with citations (4.8)
- NotebookLM โ best chat over your own sources (4.7)
- Elicit โ strong literature review workflows (4.6)
- Semantic Scholar โ academic search + TL;DRs (4.6)
- Connected Papers โ visual paper graphs (4.5)
- Grok โ real-time knowledge and reasoning (4.7)
Practical workflow
- Discover with Perplexity or Semantic Scholar
- Map the field with Connected Papers
- Deep-read and synthesise in NotebookLM or Elicit
- Cross-check claims with primary sources
See AI Research & Data for the full directory.