Glance for Context: Learning When to Leverage LLMs for Node-Aware GNN-LLM Fusion

Fuente: arXiv
Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Loveland, Donald, Yang, Yao-An, Koutra, Danai
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
Subjects:
Online Access:
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1866915548996042752
author Loveland, Donald
Yang, Yao-An
Koutra, Danai
author_facet Loveland, Donald
Yang, Yao-An
Koutra, Danai
contents Learning on text-attributed graphs has motivated the use of Large Language Models (LLMs) for graph learning. However, most fusion strategies are applied uniformly across all nodes and attain only small overall performance gains. We argue this result stems from aggregate metrics that obscure when LLMs provide benefit, inhibiting actionable signals for new strategies. In this work, we reframe LLM-GNN fusion around nodes where GNNs typically falter. We first show that performance can significantly differ between GNNs and LLMs, with each excelling on distinct structural patterns, such as local homophily. To leverage this finding, we propose GLANCE (GNN with LLM Assistance for Neighbor- and Context-aware Embeddings), a framework that invokes an LLM to refine a GNN's prediction. GLANCE employs a lightweight router that, given inexpensive per-node signals, decides whether to query the LLM. Since the LLM calls are non-differentiable, the router is trained with an advantage-based objective that compares the utility of querying the LLM against relying solely on the GNN. Across multiple benchmarks, GLANCE achieves the best performance balance across node subgroups, achieving significant gains on heterophilous nodes (up to $+13\%$) while simultaneously achieving top overall performance. Our findings highlight the value of adaptive, node-aware GNN-LLM architectures, where selectively invoking the LLM enables scalable deployment on large graphs without incurring high computational costs.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2510_10849
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Glance for Context: Learning When to Leverage LLMs for Node-Aware GNN-LLM Fusion
Loveland, Donald
Yang, Yao-An
Koutra, Danai
Machine Learning
Learning on text-attributed graphs has motivated the use of Large Language Models (LLMs) for graph learning. However, most fusion strategies are applied uniformly across all nodes and attain only small overall performance gains. We argue this result stems from aggregate metrics that obscure when LLMs provide benefit, inhibiting actionable signals for new strategies. In this work, we reframe LLM-GNN fusion around nodes where GNNs typically falter. We first show that performance can significantly differ between GNNs and LLMs, with each excelling on distinct structural patterns, such as local homophily. To leverage this finding, we propose GLANCE (GNN with LLM Assistance for Neighbor- and Context-aware Embeddings), a framework that invokes an LLM to refine a GNN's prediction. GLANCE employs a lightweight router that, given inexpensive per-node signals, decides whether to query the LLM. Since the LLM calls are non-differentiable, the router is trained with an advantage-based objective that compares the utility of querying the LLM against relying solely on the GNN. Across multiple benchmarks, GLANCE achieves the best performance balance across node subgroups, achieving significant gains on heterophilous nodes (up to $+13\%$) while simultaneously achieving top overall performance. Our findings highlight the value of adaptive, node-aware GNN-LLM architectures, where selectively invoking the LLM enables scalable deployment on large graphs without incurring high computational costs.
title Glance for Context: Learning When to Leverage LLMs for Node-Aware GNN-LLM Fusion
topic Machine Learning
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.10849