Research Agents
Deep Research Agents vs Traditional RAG Pipelines
Soren Marlowe
Staff Writer · · 10 min read
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.
How agentic design patterns break down when your agent's tools hit live web data.