Deep Research with AI lessons
What deep research does
Animated illustration: one question fans out to five sources, each is checked, and the good ones join into a report with a chart.
A deep research tool takes one question and does the legwork. It plans, searches many sources, reads them, then writes you a report.
Each claim in the report points to a citation: the source it came from. That lets you check the work yourself.
This course shows you how to ask good questions, check what comes back, and turn it into useful docs and charts.
Quick answer or deep research
A normal chat reply comes back in seconds. It might search once, or answer from what the model already knows.
Deep research runs for several minutes and reads dozens of pages. Several AI assistants offer it as a mode you switch on before you send.
A deep research run plays out in a chat window: the plan, the searching and reading, then a cited brief.
Use a quick chat for small jobs you can judge on sight. Use deep research when you need many sources, recent facts, or a report you can check.
Practice: Quick chat or deep research
Sort tasks into the ones a quick chat handles and the ones that need deep research.
Ask a sharp question
A vague question gets a vague report. Like any good prompt, a research question needs context, so the tool doesn't have to guess.
A sharp question names four things: the scope, the time frame, the audience and the output.
A vague question grows into a sharp one as the scope, time frame, audience and output are added.
Scope sets what is in and out, and the time frame rules out old sources. The audience sets the reading level, and the output names the format you want back.
Practice: Build a sharp question
Fill the gaps in a research question with specific pieces, skipping the vague decoys.
Read and steer the plan
Some tools show a research plan before they start, and let you edit it. Others ask you a few questions first.
Either way, this is your chance to steer. Cut steps that wander off, and add any angle the plan forgot.
A research plan gets steered: an off-topic step is flagged and cut, and a missing angle is added.
Always ask for the other side too. A plan that only looks for good news gives you a one-sided report.
Practice: Trim the plan
Tap the plan steps that do not help answer the question, then check.
Judge your sources
A report is only as good as its sources. A primary source is the original, like a study, a data table or an official record.
A secondary source reports on someone else's work, like a news story about a study. Details can get lost or bent on the way.
Three sources run through the same four checks: who wrote it, when, primary or secondary, and why.
For each source, ask who wrote it, when, and why. A company that sells something has a reason to show only the good parts.
Practice: Spot the red flag
Match each source to its verdict: out of date, selling something, secondary or primary.
Check the citations
AI tools sometimes get citations wrong. A link may be dead, or the page may not say what the report claims.
To check a claim, open the source and find the sentence that backs it. Make sure the numbers, dates and names match.
Three claims are checked against their sources: one matches, one has the wrong number, one link is dead.
For anything important, cross-check it in a second, independent source. Two good sources that agree are much stronger than one.
Practice: Find the sentence
Tap the sentence in the source that backs up the claim, or pick None when nothing does.
Ask for the shape you want
You can ask for the results in any shape. Name it: a table, a three-point summary, a short brief or a doc with headings.
For a table, name the columns. For a doc, list the headings you want, in order.
The same findings shown as a summary, a table and a brief, each with the one-line request that made it.
Ask for a citation on every row or point. Then you can still check the work after it has been reshaped.
Keep private data private
Some AI tools may use what you type to train future models. Personal plans often do this unless you switch it off, while work plans usually don't.
Never paste passwords, other people's personal details or confidential work files. Check the tool's privacy settings and follow your workplace's rules.
If the AI needs a file, strip it down first. Remove names and keep only the columns you need.
Pick the safest choice in four situations about sharing data with an AI tool.
Turn data into a chart
Research often turns up numbers. Ask for them as a CSV, a plain table with commas between the columns.
Then pick the chart that fits. Bars compare categories, a line shows change over time, and a scatter plot shows if two things are related.
Three small CSVs, each drawn as the chart that fits it: bar, line and scatter.
You can ask the AI to draw the chart, or paste the CSV into a spreadsheet. Either way, you choose the chart type.
Practice: Pick the chart
Preview a CSV as a bar, line or scatter chart, and check the one that fits.
Read the axes
Before you trust a chart, read its title, axis labels and units. Then check where the vertical axis starts.
An axis that starts above zero makes small gaps look huge. Chart tools often pick the range for you, so always check it.
The same two ratings drawn with the axis starting at 0 and at 90.
To compare two values fairly, use the percentage change. Divide the change by the starting value, then multiply by 100.
Percentage change: \text{percentage change} = \frac{\text{new} - \text{old}}{\text{old}} \times 100
Practice: Read the chart
Read two values off a line chart and type the percentage rise between them.
Put the report together
A good report leads with the answer. Then it gives the evidence, a chart or table of the key numbers, and the sources.
Add a short note on the limits, like what the sources didn't cover. Then read it once more, as your audience would.
Put the parts of a research brief in order, then the steps of the whole research job.
That is the whole job: a sharp question, a steered plan, checked sources and a clear report.