Paper Type
Complete
Abstract
Generative AI (GenAI) is increasingly integrated into academic teamwork, yet its role in everyday collaborative learning remains underexplored. This study examines how students individually and collectively use, share, and manage information with GenAI in academic settings. Drawing on distributed cognition, we conceptualize GenAI-supported collaboration as information work distributed across people, AI tools, and shared artifacts. Students were tasked with completing team-based assignments using GenAI, and focus group data were collected and analyzed through an inductive thematic approach. Findings indicate that students engage GenAI strategically as both a creative and cognitive partner for ideation, synthesis, refinement, and rephrasing. At the same time, team norms and instructors’ expectations shape practices of verification, accountability, and acceptable reliance on AI-generated outputs. These factors structure how students collaborate with each other and with GenAI, evaluate outputs, share responsibility, and integrate AI into collaborative learning processes.
Paper Number
1394
Recommended Citation
Anis, Sumra; Ho, Shuyuan Mary; Kuanysh, Akerke; and Sengupta, Subhasree, "The New Normal? Collaborative Information Behavior with Generative AI" (2026). AMCIS 2026 Proceedings. 8.
https://aisel.aisnet.org/amcis2026/sig_ed/sig_ed/8
The New Normal? Collaborative Information Behavior with Generative AI
Generative AI (GenAI) is increasingly integrated into academic teamwork, yet its role in everyday collaborative learning remains underexplored. This study examines how students individually and collectively use, share, and manage information with GenAI in academic settings. Drawing on distributed cognition, we conceptualize GenAI-supported collaboration as information work distributed across people, AI tools, and shared artifacts. Students were tasked with completing team-based assignments using GenAI, and focus group data were collected and analyzed through an inductive thematic approach. Findings indicate that students engage GenAI strategically as both a creative and cognitive partner for ideation, synthesis, refinement, and rephrasing. At the same time, team norms and instructors’ expectations shape practices of verification, accountability, and acceptable reliance on AI-generated outputs. These factors structure how students collaborate with each other and with GenAI, evaluate outputs, share responsibility, and integrate AI into collaborative learning processes.
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