Artificial Intelligence and Consumer Information Search: A Review, Synthesis, and Propositions
系统综述了AI如何改变消费者信息搜索，识别出四个主题领域，为工程管理者优化搜索系统提供策略建议。
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is transforming how consumers search, interpret, and apply information, presenting both opportunities and challenges for engineering management in designing, managing, and using AI-enabled search systems. Despite substantial research, studies on AI-enabled consumer information search remain fragmented, providing limited integration of insights across technological, behavioral, and managerial perspectives. To address this, we conduct a systematic literature review guided by the PRISMA protocol and grounded theory, identifying four thematic areas: Information Search and AI recommendation, AI conversation, AI anthropomorphism, and AI retrieval, which are structured into a search-theme mapping framework to organize themes across the consumer search stages. The findings under each theme are synthesized to reveal research gaps, derive future research propositions, and highlight managerial implications. This synthesis shows how engineering managers can apply AI recommendation strategies, message framing, anthropomorphic design, modality, cognitive load, and generative AI timing to optimize consumer search, decision making, and engagement. Overall, the study synthesizes fragmented knowledge, advances theoretical understanding, and provides a structured foundation for guiding future research and managerial practice in engineering management.