Many generative AI tools now include a feature called Deep Research or Research. Instead of giving you a quick answer, these features are designed to investigate a question in more depth and produce a structured research report.
Deep Research tools typically:
search and analyze many sources
conduct multiple rounds of searching, refining the search as they go
compare and synthesize information from different sources
produce longer, structured reports with citations
use AI reasoning to decide what information to look for next
Depending on the tool, Deep Research may use websites, uploaded files, connected services, or other information sources.
Deep Research features are available in tools such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Perplexity, and others, although availability and usage limits vary by plan.
Deep Research for scholarly information
Some AI research tools offer similar features specifically for academic literature. Elicit, Undermind, SciSpace, and Ai2 Scholar QA, for example, search large collections of scholarly papers and can synthesize findings across multiple studies.
These tools can be especially useful for discovering relevant research because they use semantic search, which looks for papers related to the meaning of your question rather than relying only on matching keywords.
However, don't assume that an AI research tool provides a comprehensive literature search. Different tools search different collections of publications, and none replaces searching appropriate library databases when comprehensiveness matters.