In the ITHAKA Fall 2026 Community Letter dated September 23, 2026, Kevin Guthrie addresses how artificial intelligence is transforming research and learning while reaffirming that ITHAKA’s mission remains unchanged.
AI is altering how people discover, evaluate, and engage with scholarly resources. Researchers and learners increasingly begin with questions rather than keyword searches. They seek conversational exploration, faster orientation to unfamiliar topics, and support as they move across research environments. These shifts affect not only where research starts but also how people learn to ask questions, evaluate sources, build understanding, and develop original ideas. ITHAKA is studying these changes through Ithaka S+R and actively exploring how best to support them with AI at JSTOR.
For decades, JSTOR has helped users discover trusted scholarship, understand scholarly context, benefit from library-supported access, and connect with original sources. As AI becomes part of research, teaching, and learning, grounding work in those principles grows even more important.
ITHAKA aims to keep scholarship discoverable, attributable, and connected to original sources while supporting the foundational habits of inquiry and source evaluation wherever students and scholars work. This involves exploring whether carefully governed AI-supported experiences can strengthen the research process while preserving the practices it depends on.
The organization is pursuing a two-pronged approach. First, it continues to invest in responsible, thoughtful use of AI on JSTOR itself. Already more than 15% of users engage with the platform’s AI-enabled research capabilities. This fall, JSTOR is releasing a dynamic new AI-assisted search experience, rolled out gradually across institutions to gather feedback and support learning. On-platform AI features remain optional and can be enabled or disabled by library administrators.
Second, ITHAKA is looking beyond its own platform to the other AI-enabled environments that students and scholars now use. The goal is to ensure that research experiences in those settings include access to trusted, high-quality content with clear provenance that respects copyright holder rights and access entitlements. The organization is actively engaged with a small number of companies, beginning with a focus on academic journals, and will share lessons and directional insights as experiments evolve.
Guthrie points readers to two recent publications for deeper insight: “AI is changing research behaviors: How JSTOR preserves thinking and learning” by JSTOR product leaders Ashank Rai and Beth LaPensee, and “Postsecondary Value in the Age of AI” by Ithaka S+R managing director Martin Kurzweil. He invites questions, ideas, and collaboration opportunities.
https://www.ithaka.org/news/ithaka-fall-2026-community-letter-ai-at-jstor/