Research Agents (Deep Research)

OpenAI's Deep Research, Google's Gemini Deep Research, and Anthropic's Research mode all read dozens of sources and synthesize a report.

A research agent task that used to take a human 4 hours can now finish in 10 minutes.

Three uses for research agents

• Comparing products before a big purchase
• Summarizing literature for a school project
• Tracking news on a specific topic over weeks

The big idea: Research agents do hours of reading in minutes — but always check the sources they cite.

Deep research agents browse the web, read sources, and write a structured report. They save hours on big school projects. Catch: always verify sources.

Some examples

• 'Research the climate impact of fast fashion. Give me sources.'
• 'Help me research college options for studying environmental engineering.'
• 'Create a research report on the history of video games for my project.'
• 'Research current debates about AI in schools — give multiple perspectives.'

Try it!

Research agents in 2026 can spend 20 minutes reading 100 sources and write you a briefing. The catch is what you ask — bad prompts produce 20 pages of mush.

Some examples

• Ask ChatGPT Deep Research for a briefing on your thesis topic with 5 specific sub-questions.
• Ask Claude how to structure a Deep Research prompt for maximum source quality.
• Ask Gemini Deep Research for the same topic and compare which sources differ.
• Ask Perplexity Pro to run alongside as a third opinion.

Try it!

Pick your hardest research topic. Write a 6-line Deep Research prompt with sub-questions. Run it. Read the briefing in the morning.