AI agent glossary
Deep research
An agent mode that researches a question for many minutes, running many searches and reading many sources, then writes a cited report.
A normal chat answer comes from a quick search or from what the model already knows. Deep research runs as an agent: it plans an approach, issues dozens of searches, reads pages, follows leads, and synthesizes what it found into a long report with citations. ChatGPT and Gemini offer deep research modes, and Claude offers a comparable Research feature.
It works best for questions where breadth matters: market overviews, comparisons of options, literature reviews, and background research before a decision. Many implementations use multiple agents, with a lead agent dispatching subagents to research parts of the question in parallel.
The output looks authoritative, which is exactly why it needs checking. Spot-check the citations, watch for weak or outdated sources, and verify any claim you plan to act on.
Learn more in the course
Related terms
Go from definitions to doing
Learn to use and build AI agents in 65 practical lessons.