Guidance for stakeholders

Physiotherapy researchers

• Impact: AI offers powerful tools for literature analysis, data processing, hypothesis generation, and collaboration across distances, potentially accelerating discovery and insight.

• Guidance: Develop strong AI literacy, maintain critical thinking skills, use AI as a complement to human creativity, document AI methods transparently, and prioritize ethical data use practices.

Research supervisors and mentors

• Impact: AI changes research supervision dynamics, introducing new tools while raising questions about skills development and research integrity.

• Guidance: Guide mentees in balancing AI assistance with independent scientific thinking, establish clear expectations for AI use in research projects, and encourage critical evaluation of AI-generated outputs.

Academic institutions

• Impact: AI integration requires infrastructure investments, policy development, and consideration of research equity across departments.

• Guidance: Develop comprehensive AI research policies, ensure equitable access to AI tools across research groups, provide technical support for AI implementation, and create ethical review processes for AI-enhanced research.

Journal editors and publishers

• Impact: AI transforms research production and review processes, requiring new standards for reporting and verification.

• Guidance: Establish clear guidelines for reporting AI methods in manuscripts, develop processes to verify AI-generated analyses, and consider how to maintain research integrity in an AI-enhanced publication landscape.

Funding bodies

• Impact: AI potentially changes research funding priorities and creates disparities between resourced and under-resourced institutions.

• Guidance: Consider equitable funding distribution for AI research capabilities, develop specific funding streams for AI integration in physiotherapy research, and require robust AI ethics statements in research proposals.

Ethics committees

• Impact: AI introduces new ethical considerations around data use, privacy, consent, and potential biases.

• Guidance: Develop specialized expertise in AI ethics relevant to physiotherapy research, create updated frameworks for evaluating AI research ethics, and establish monitoring processes for ongoing AI-driven studies.

Research participants and patient representatives

• Impact: AI changes how participant data may be used, potentially in ways not initially anticipated.

• Guidance: Advocate for transparent communication about AI use in research, ensure informed consent processes address potential AI applications of participant data, and participate in developing patient-centred AI research priorities.

Early career researchers

• Impact: AI provides powerful research , but may affect skill development and research independence.

• Guidance: Embrace AI as an enhancing tool while developing strong foundational research skills, seek specific training in AI methods and limitations, and maintain critical perspective on AI-generated outputs.

Professional bodies

• Impact: AI integration requires new professional standards and competency frameworks for research practice.

• Guidance: Develop position statements on AI in physiotherapy research, incorporate AI literacy into professional development programs, and advocate for responsible AI implementation that aligns with professional values.