Artificial intelligence (AI) has emerged as a prominent tool in the modern day. The utilization of AI and advanced language models such as chat generative pre-trained transformer (ChatGPT) and Bard is not only innovative but also crucial for handling challenges related to water research. ChatGPT is an AI chatbot that uses natural language processing to create humanlike conversations. ChatGPT has recently gained considerable public interest, owing to its unique ability to simplify tasks from various backgrounds. Similarly, Google introduced Bard, an AI-powered chatbot to simulate human conversations. Herein, we investigated how ChatGPT and Bard (AI powdered chatbots) tools can impact water research through interactive sessions. Typically, ChatGPT and Bard offer significant benefits to various fields, including research, education, scientific publications, and outreach. ChatGPT and Bard simplify complex and challenging tasks. For instance, 50 important questions about water treatment/desalination techniques and 50 questions about water harvesting techniques were provided to both chatbots. Time analytics was performed by ChatGPT 3.5, and Bard was used to generate full responses. In particular, the effectiveness of this emerging tool for research purposes in the field of conventional water treatment techniques, advanced water treatment techniques, membrane technology and seawater desalination has been thoroughly demonstrated. Moreover, potential pitfalls and challenges were also highlighted. Thus, sharing these experiences may encourage the effective and responsible use of Bard and ChatGPT in research purposes. Finally, the responses were compared from the perspective of an expert. Although ChatGPT and Bard possess huge benefits, there are several issues, which are discussed in this study. Based on this study, we can compare the abilities of artificial intelligence and human intelligence in water sector research. © 2023