Octopi / Guides / What is an AI research agent
Explainer
What is an AI research agent?
An AI research agent takes a goal in plain language, then plans and carries out the steps to reach it — searching, reading pages and gathering data — instead of just answering a question. Here’s how that differs from the tools you already know.
How it actually works
You give it a goal
Instead of a single prompt, you describe an outcome — for example, “research each company in this list and fill these columns.”
It plans the steps
The agent breaks the goal into steps: which sites to visit, what to extract, how to verify — and compiles a workflow.
It acts and checks its work
It drives a browser, calls data sources, writes results, and verifies them — repeating across every row and flagging what it couldn’t confirm.
| Tool | What it does |
|---|---|
| Chatbot | Answers from what it already knows |
| Scraper | Pulls fixed fields from pages you point it at |
| Research agent | Plans and carries out a research goal, end to end |
A research agent decides the steps and does them, not just the final answer.
How Octopi fits in
Plain-English tasks
Describe an outcome and Octopi plans and runs the steps to reach it, across a whole list.
Runs on your Mac
Unlike cloud agents, Octopi runs its AI model locally by default — the reasoning happens on your Mac and your spreadsheet is never uploaded.
Checkable results
Every value it writes carries a clickable source, so its work is auditable.
Built for lists
It applies the same research goal to every row and writes results into your sheet.
Questions
How is a research agent different from a chatbot?
A chatbot answers from what it already knows. A research agent plans and carries out steps — searching, reading pages, gathering and verifying data — to reach a goal you set.
Is it the same as a web scraper?
No. A scraper pulls fixed fields from pages you point it at. A research agent decides which sources to use and what to extract to satisfy your goal, then verifies it.
What can you use one for?
Enriching lists of companies, finding and verifying work emails, filling a CRM, and monitoring news — anything that means repeating research across many rows.
Does an AI research agent need the cloud?
Not necessarily. A local-first agent like Octopi runs its AI model on your own Mac, so your spreadsheet and the reasoning stay on your computer; only the lookups it makes go out to the web.
Related
See a research agent in action
Download Octopi and turn a plain-English research goal into a finished spreadsheet — free, on your Mac.
Download Octopi free