What’s Missing from Your Literature Review? How AI Can Help Bring An Inclusion Lens—And Where It Falls Short

A few years ago, I was asked to review a gender strategy drafted for a regional programme. The framework was neat—box-ticking neat. It referenced the usual global standards, quoted two UN reports, cited some OECD data… but something about it felt thin.

Where were the lived experiences? The regional feminist voices? The messy, grounded insights that remind you this isn’t just about numbers, but about power?

The problem wasn’t that the team didn’t care about inclusion. They genuinely did. The issue was bandwidth—and visibility. When you’re rushing against deadlines with 30 tabs open and multiple donor requirements, the “go-to” sources win. The usual PDFs. The usual citations. The usual authors.

But if we’re serious about gender and social inclusion, we need to be serious about who gets included in our evidence base.

The Promise (and Limits) of AI in Expanding Our View

This is where tools like ChatGPT’s Deep Research feature can support us—if we use them wisely.

At its best, Deep Research acts like a rapid assistant that can scan multiple sources, summarise existing debates, and flag examples you may not have encountered. For busy practitioners and evaluators, it can save hours of desk research and pull together threads from across geographies and sectors.

But here’s the catch: AI only pulls from what it’s been trained on—and even with web access, it often reflects the biases baked into dominant data ecosystems. That means it’s great at surfacing what’s already well represented. But unless prompted carefully, it can miss out on the very knowledge we need to centre:

• Community-led reports that don’t live in academic databases
• Feminist and decolonial perspectives that are under-cited
• Grey literature in local languages
• Unpublished work that circulates in WhatsApp groups or community meetings

So How Do We Use AI Without Repeating the Same Exclusion Patterns?

Here are a few practical ways you can use tools like Deep Research to support your gender and inclusion work—without handing over the wheel.

1. Be Specific in Your Prompts

Instead of asking:

“What are best practices in GBV programming?” Try asking: “What have feminist organisations in East Africa documented as effective approaches to community-led GBV prevention?”

The more context-aware your prompt, the more likely you’ll get useful leads.

2. Request Diverse Sources—Explicitly

You can ask ChatGPT to include voices from specific regions, cite from women-led organisations, or summarise perspectives from the Global South. Try:

“Include examples from local NGOs, not just UN or multilateral sources.” “List key feminist thinkers or grassroots perspectives on this topic.”

You won’t always get perfect results, but you’ll shift the algorithm’s centre of gravity.

3. Cross-Check and Supplement with Your Own Networks

AI can give you a quick scan—but you bring the wisdom. Pair what ChatGPT finds with:

• Interviews or notes from community partners
• Local publications or newsletters
• Practitioner WhatsApp group insights
• Reports shared via your own networks

Let AI save you time, but don’t let it define the scope of what matters.

4. Use ChatGPT's Projects Feature to Keep Context Together

If you’re gathering information for a report or evaluation, use ChatGPT’s Projects feature to:

• Keep your gender analysis prompts, documents, and responses in one space
• Upload relevant local frameworks or tools to guide the AI’s responses
• Build out reflections as you go, so you’re not starting from scratch each session

Inclusion Starts with What We Read and Reference

We talk a lot about inclusion in participation, decision-making, and service delivery—but inclusion also lives in what we cite, who we quote, and which stories we centre in our work.

AI can help us expand our field of vision—but only if we’re intentional. The question isn’t just what does ChatGPT say about gender equity? It’s:

Whose voices is it surfacing? Whose are being left out? And what can we do about that?

Want to Learn How to Use Deep Research and Other ChatGPT Features in Your Own Work?

We’re hosting a practical, hands-on webinar just for gender and development practitioners like you. We’ll cover how to use ChatGPT’s new features—Deep Research, Projects, and Tasks—to save time, stay organised, and strengthen your evidence base without compromising your values.None of these features require coding or technical skills.

Register here.

Only 5 spots left!! Grab yours NOW??