Can AI Serve as a Reading Guide? Exploring How Generative AI Enhances Information Comprehension

Integrating generative artificial intelligence (GAI) in education presents new opportunities for enhancing reading comprehension. This study examines how effectively conversational generative AI tools can enhance students’ reading comprehension (RQ1) and what benefits and challenges such tools introduce for academic reading (RQ2). Using a mixed-methods within-subjects design, N = 103 university students completed traditional and AI-assisted reading tasks, with comprehension assessed using the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) framework. Results show that AI-assisted reading was associated with higher post-test performance in inference-making and critical evaluation, while offering limited support for explicit information retrieval. Higher-proficiency readers benefited more from AI tools, while lower-proficiency readers showed minimal improvement. Notably, participants’ perceived usefulness of AI assistance did not always align with objective comprehension outcomes. Overall, conversational AI appears to function best as a selective cognitive scaffold supporting advanced meaning-making rather than as a replacement for independent reading.