NExT-Search: Rebuilding User Feedback Ecosystem for Generative AI Search

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Dai, Sunhao, Wang, Wenjie, Pang, Liang, Xu, Jun, Ng, See-Kiong, Wen, Ji-Rong, Chua, Tat-Seng
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Dai, Sunhao
Wang, Wenjie
Pang, Liang
Xu, Jun
Ng, See-Kiong
Wen, Ji-Rong
Chua, Tat-Seng
author_facet Dai, Sunhao
Wang, Wenjie
Pang, Liang
Xu, Jun
Ng, See-Kiong
Wen, Ji-Rong
Chua, Tat-Seng
contents Generative AI search is reshaping information retrieval by offering end-to-end answers to complex queries, reducing users' reliance on manually browsing and summarizing multiple web pages. However, while this paradigm enhances convenience, it disrupts the feedback-driven improvement loop that has historically powered the evolution of traditional Web search. Web search can continuously improve their ranking models by collecting large-scale, fine-grained user feedback (e.g., clicks, dwell time) at the document level. In contrast, generative AI search operates through a much longer search pipeline, spanning query decomposition, document retrieval, and answer generation, yet typically receives only coarse-grained feedback on the final answer. This introduces a feedback loop disconnect, where user feedback for the final output cannot be effectively mapped back to specific system components, making it difficult to improve each intermediate stage and sustain the feedback loop. In this paper, we envision NExT-Search, a next-generation paradigm designed to reintroduce fine-grained, process-level feedback into generative AI search. NExT-Search integrates two complementary modes: User Debug Mode, which allows engaged users to intervene at key stages; and Shadow User Mode, where a personalized user agent simulates user preferences and provides AI-assisted feedback for less interactive users. Furthermore, we envision how these feedback signals can be leveraged through online adaptation, which refines current search outputs in real-time, and offline update, which aggregates interaction logs to periodically fine-tune query decomposition, retrieval, and generation models. By restoring human control over key stages of the generative AI search pipeline, we believe NExT-Search offers a promising direction for building feedback-rich AI search systems that can evolve continuously alongside human feedback.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2505_14680
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle NExT-Search: Rebuilding User Feedback Ecosystem for Generative AI Search
Dai, Sunhao
Wang, Wenjie
Pang, Liang
Xu, Jun
Ng, See-Kiong
Wen, Ji-Rong
Chua, Tat-Seng
Information Retrieval
Artificial Intelligence
Computation and Language
Human-Computer Interaction
Generative AI search is reshaping information retrieval by offering end-to-end answers to complex queries, reducing users' reliance on manually browsing and summarizing multiple web pages. However, while this paradigm enhances convenience, it disrupts the feedback-driven improvement loop that has historically powered the evolution of traditional Web search. Web search can continuously improve their ranking models by collecting large-scale, fine-grained user feedback (e.g., clicks, dwell time) at the document level. In contrast, generative AI search operates through a much longer search pipeline, spanning query decomposition, document retrieval, and answer generation, yet typically receives only coarse-grained feedback on the final answer. This introduces a feedback loop disconnect, where user feedback for the final output cannot be effectively mapped back to specific system components, making it difficult to improve each intermediate stage and sustain the feedback loop. In this paper, we envision NExT-Search, a next-generation paradigm designed to reintroduce fine-grained, process-level feedback into generative AI search. NExT-Search integrates two complementary modes: User Debug Mode, which allows engaged users to intervene at key stages; and Shadow User Mode, where a personalized user agent simulates user preferences and provides AI-assisted feedback for less interactive users. Furthermore, we envision how these feedback signals can be leveraged through online adaptation, which refines current search outputs in real-time, and offline update, which aggregates interaction logs to periodically fine-tune query decomposition, retrieval, and generation models. By restoring human control over key stages of the generative AI search pipeline, we believe NExT-Search offers a promising direction for building feedback-rich AI search systems that can evolve continuously alongside human feedback.
title NExT-Search: Rebuilding User Feedback Ecosystem for Generative AI Search
topic Information Retrieval
Artificial Intelligence
Computation and Language
Human-Computer Interaction
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.14680