I spend a lot of time poking, prodding, and generally tormenting AI agents to see what makes them tick, and I've developed a keen eye for what’s genuinely useful and what’s merely shiny tech hype.

Recently, my curiosity led me to test ChatGPT's latest feature, Deep Research, and I have to admit – I’m genuinely impressed. But before we jump into why, let’s briefly unpack what exactly this feature is and how it works.

Deep Research is the brilliant librarian addict you always hoped to be paired up with in school. It can gather, analyze, and repackage huge amounts of information in useful and even fun ways. Unlike a typical quick Q&A session, Deep Research takes its time. That can mean anything from five minutes to, theoretically, a full half hour. It will then deliver detailed, trustworthy insights tailored precisely to your query.

I've spent a lot of time with it and genuinely think it's the best bit of ChatGPT right now. If you're unsure whether it's worth the hype, I've put together a handful of reasons you might want to stick a toe in Deep Research.

I've spent more time than I like to think about scrolling through travel blogs, Reddit threads, and outdated TripAdvisor reviews just to plan a simple getaway. Planning vacations, especially if you want something beyond the standard tourist traps, is something Deep Research is quite good at. For a test, I asked the AI to "Plan a two-week trip to Portugal, emphasizing local culture, hidden gems, authentic cuisine, and avoiding crowds."