Research Agents
Comparing Research Agent Frameworks in 2025
Research agents live or die on their retrieval layer, not their orchestration model.
Maya Okafor
Editor at Large · · 11 min read
Research agents live or die on their retrieval layer, not their orchestration model.
Deciding when AI agents should stop searching the web, not just how to search iteratively.
Memory systems fail not because context windows are small, but because models lose signal in noise.
Research agents need to verify sources before trusting them, not after confidently citing them.
Research agents need loops, not one-shot retrieval, to handle ambiguous questions and live data.
Research agents dig deeper but cost more; answer engines are fast and cheap.