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Deep Research with AI: get reports you can trust

Published 8 Nov 20266 min read

Deep Research with AI is a short course on how to use AI for research and get a report you can actually trust. In 18 sections it covers when to use a deep research mode instead of a quick chat, how to ask a sharp question, how to read and steer the research plan, how to judge sources and check citations, how to keep private data private, and how to turn the numbers into an honest chart.

Deep research tools plan a search, read dozens of pages over several minutes and write you a report with sources. They save hours, but they still make mistakes, so most of this course is about checking.

What the course covers

Sections	Topic	What you do
1 to 3	What deep research does, and when a quick chat is enough	Sort tasks into quick chat or deep research
4 to 5	Asking a sharp question	Fill the gaps in a research question with specific pieces, skipping the vague ones
6 to 7	Reading and steering the plan	Tap the plan steps that wander off the question
8 to 9	Judging sources	Match sources to verdicts: out of date, selling something, secondary or primary
10 to 11	Checking citations	Find the sentence in a source that backs a claim, or spot that none does
12 to 13	Asking for the right format, and keeping private data private	Learn what never to paste into an AI tool
14 to 17	Turning data into charts, and reading axes	Pick the chart that fits a CSV, then read a percentage rise off a line chart
18	Putting the report together	Lead with the answer, then evidence, chart, sources and limits

Asking well

A vague question gets a vague report. The course teaches a sharp question that names four things: the scope, the time frame, the audience and the output. "Electric cars" is a topic; "How did the share of new cars sold in the UK that were fully electric change from 2020 to 2025, as a one-page brief with a table, for a school debate" is a question a tool can answer well.

Checking well

A report is only as good as its sources. A primary source is the original, such as a study or an official data table; a secondary source reports on it, and details can bend on the way. AI tools sometimes cite a dead link or a page that does not say what the report claims, so the course has you open the source and find the exact sentence behind a claim.

Presenting well

Research often turns up numbers. Ask for them as a CSV, then choose the chart that fits: bars compare categories, a line shows change over time and a scatter plot shows whether two things are related. Then check the vertical axis: one that starts above zero makes small differences look huge.

Try a question from the course

A quick chat is right for a fact, a definition or a short explanation, answered in seconds. Deep research is worth the wait when you need many sources compared, such as "compare the battery warranties of five phone makers and show where they differ", or a summary of recent studies on a question. Asking deep research for a simple definition wastes several minutes.

Now sort a few tasks, then press Mark to check your answers in the course.

Press Mark to have your answer marked in the Deep Research with AI course.

Who this course is for

Students using AI for essays, projects and coursework, who need sources they can cite and defend.
Office workers asked to research a market, a supplier or a policy and summarise it quickly.
Anyone who has had an AI tool give a confident answer that turned out to be wrong.

What you need to know first

Nothing beyond having used an AI chat assistant. Section 17 asks you to work out a percentage rise from a chart, so you need basic percentages. The AI Prompt Engineering course is a good companion for writing clearer requests.

How long it takes

There are 18 sections, and most take a few minutes. Learners without a plan can open two sections of a course a day, in order, so the whole course takes 9 days. A plan removes the daily limit, so you could finish it in one sitting.

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Common questions

Is this course free?

You can take every section without paying, two sections a day, in order. A plan removes the daily limit and opens any section straight away. The AI tools you use may have their own costs.

What is AI deep research?

A mode in some AI assistants that takes one question, plans a search, reads many sources over several minutes and writes a report with citations, instead of replying in seconds from a single search or the model's memory.

Can I trust AI research?

Not without checking. AI tools can cite pages that do not support their claims, use out-of-date or biased sources, or get numbers wrong. Open the key sources and confirm each important claim before you rely on it.

How do I write a good research question for AI?

Name the scope, the time frame, the audience and the output you want. The more specific each part is, the less the tool has to guess.

What should I never put into an AI tool?

Passwords, other people's personal details and confidential work files. Some tools may use what you type to improve their models unless you change a setting, so check the privacy options and your workplace's rules.

How do I spot a misleading chart?

Read the title, the axis labels and the units, then check where the vertical axis starts. An axis that does not start at zero can make small gaps look large.

Revision cards

Say the answer first, then flip the card to check it.

Where to go next

Solve it
Histogram Maker
Draw histograms with frequency density and cumulative frequency
Open the tool
Learn it
Deep Research with AI
Let AI do the digging: sources, summaries, charts and reports you can trust
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