OpenAI’s Deep Research: The "Big Bang" Event for AI Agents

Do we finally have a killer app for AI agents? What this means for AI and everyone else.

OpenAI just released Deep Research, a new ChatGPT feature that can perform in-depth research by surfing the Internet on its own. To quote an OpenAI researcher, now workers can “hand it a hard problem, grab a coffee, and come back to a well-researched solution in 10–30 minutes.”

The initial reviews range from glowing reviews to skepticism, but I view Deep Research as OpenAI’s most important product release since ChatGPT itself. The product has rough edges as a V1, but Deep Research will be the “killer app” that OpenAI needed to elevate itself into an “AI agent” company, and break free from the competitive chatbot space.

In the process, OpenAI will significantly accelerate AI agent adoption timelines for both B2C and B2B, as the first “agent app” to cross over to mass market. In fact, its coding and other vertical AI agents are rumored to hit in the middle of H1.

Will this help OpenAI’s competitors and AI startups?