Research Agent: Cited Research From One Front Door

Ask any research question. Get a sourced answer, with the gaps stated.

The Research Agent is an AI research agent in the Ai1 platform by MyZone AI: it answers questions about your market, your competitors and your own Google Analytics and Search Console data, picks the right research engine, cross-checks what matters and cites every source with a confidence level.

We'll show you the Research Agent on your own research question. Every finding comes with its source and a confidence level.

Plans & pricing

  • Answers you can check

    Every finding names where it came from, so you can see what an answer rests on before you act on it.

  • One place to ask

    Market questions, competitor checks and your own traffic data all go through the same agent. No juggling separate tools.

  • Honest about what it does not know

    Confidence, contradictions and evidence gaps are stated plainly instead of being papered over with a confident guess.

Get to know Samuel

Samuel is your single research front door, for your Ai1 system and the outside world, with the right research engine chosen automatically. He wears his reading glasses on his head and always forgets they are there.

AI agent. Fictional persona; not a real person.

Samuel, the persona of the Research Agent
NameSamuel M.
RoleResearch Lead
Experience37 years
Work historyResearch director at a policy institute
Senior researcher at a university
PersonalityThorough, explains his method
Based inNairobi, Kenya

Why Samuel has a personality

AI does better work as a specific expert, so the Research Agent works as Samuel (Research Lead, Nairobi, Kenya). You can rename Samuel or change the personality, experience and profile settings at any time.

Why our agents have personalities

The Research Agent in short

Last updated · Reviewed by the MyZone AI team

The Research Agent at a glance
ResearchesYour market, your competitors and your own analytics
EngineThe lightest engine that can do the job well, or the one you name
Your dataGoogle Analytics and Search Console next to outside research
ChecksCross-checks important conclusions and flags contradictions
AnswersA direct reply for quick questions, a shareable report for bigger ones
What it never doesChange your agents, tools or automations

What the Research Agent does for you

  • Researches your market and competitors

    Runs web and market research and competitor checks, then reports what it found with citations, a confidence level and any gaps.

  • Picks the right research engine

    Chooses the lightest engine that can do the job well, from quick web search to deeper research tools. If you prefer a specific one, just say so.

  • Reads your own analytics

    Pulls evidence from your Google Analytics and Search Console so outside research sits next to what your own site data shows.

  • Checks before it answers

    Plans the question, looks at current sources, cross-checks important conclusions and flags anything that contradicts.

  • Explains how your Ai1 agents fit together

    Ask which agent handles a job, which tools it uses or how a request flows from start to finish, and it maps it out for you.

  • Sizes the answer to the question

    Quick questions get a direct reply. Bigger investigations come back as a readable report you can save and share.

How the Research Agent differs from a general AI chatbot

A general chatbot gives you an answer and leaves you to judge what it rests on. The Research Agent plans the question, reads current sources, cross-checks the conclusions that matter and cites every finding with a confidence level. It can put outside research next to your own Google Analytics and Search Console data, and when it cannot find a reliable answer it says so instead of guessing.

How this differs from the Market Intelligence Analyst: the Market Intelligence Analyst runs recurring, branded briefs on competitors, customers and regulation, while the Research Agent answers any one question, including questions about your own analytics.

From your request to a finished result

It runs inside your Ai1 system and works in the tools you already use. You ask, it works, it reports, and it stops for your OK where it matters.

How the Research Agent works: you ask through the Comms Hub and Ai1 runs the steps: ask, agree the scope, research and verify and report. It works with Google Analytics 4, Google Search Console, Perplexity, ChatGPT and Claude. You approve at: agree the scope. It returns a shareable reports.
Tap the diagram to enlarge it

Step 1: Ask

Describe what you want to know, from a single competitor to a full market picture or how part of your setup works.

You approve

Step 2: Agree the scope

If the question is broad, it checks what you are really after before it starts, so the work stays focused.

Step 3: Research and verify

It picks the right engine, reads current sources and cross-checks the conclusions that matter.

Step 4: Report

You get a direct answer or a shareable report, with sources, confidence and open gaps listed.

Hand these situations to the Research Agent

Illustrative photo: an independent management consultant asks the Research Agent for help from their phone.
Illustrative photo. Ask a research question in plain words on the way into a meeting.
  • You need a quick read on a market or competitor
    It runs a cited scan and tells you how confident it is and where the evidence is thin.
  • You want outside research next to your own numbers
    It pairs market findings with what your Google Analytics and Search Console data shows over the same period.
  • You are planning a change and want the current picture first
    It lays out what exists today so your next request to the right agent is well informed.
  • Something seems off and you are not sure who to ask
    It investigates, finds the relevant part of your setup and points you to the agent that can fix it.

What you get

  • Direct, cited answers to quick questions
  • Market and competitor scans with confidence and gaps stated
  • Research that combines outside sources with your own analytics
  • Readable, shareable reports for bigger investigations
  • Plain-language maps of how your Ai1 agents and automations connect

What it won't do

Example: European heat pump market brief

Example with a fictional company. Names, people and figures are invented to show the agent's output. Any resemblance to a real company or person is unintended. Industry facts are real and cited with their sources.

What it was asked: Is the European heat pump market's recovery after the 2024 slump durable enough to justify expanding our low-temperature, heat-pump-ready component range?

Example report
Research brief summary with a recommendation callout and four headline numbers: about 2.6 million heat pumps sold in Europe in 2025, a 21 percent drop in 2024, boiler subsidies ended in 2025, and a rule of thumb that heat pumps typically beat gas when electricity costs under about twice the price of gas, depending on efficiency.
The bottom line
Bar chart of European heat pump sales from 2023 to 2025 in millions of units, showing the 2024 trough and the 2025 recovery, with a data table beside it.
Where the market stands
Table of three market deciders (the buildings directive ending boiler subsidies, the refrigerant regulation from 2027, and the shifting sales ratio between boilers and heat pumps) beside an explainer of the power-to-gas price ratio and a plain-English glossary.
What decides the market
Three watchpoint cards for the fictional client (subsidy stability, the price ratio falling below three, and qualifying propane-compatible parts before 2027), followed by an honest list of what the brief did not cover.
What it means for the client

What it found: 3 findings, with the numbers

  • Europe's heat pump market fell about a fifth in 2024 as subsidies paused and gas prices eased, then grew roughly a tenth in 2025: a policy-driven pause, not a lost decade.
  • European law has ended subsidies for stand-alone fossil-fuel boilers since 2025 and starts phasing them out, while refrigerant rules from 2027 push new heat pumps toward natural refrigerants like propane.
  • Running costs, not technology, decide adoption: heat pumps deliver three to five units of heat per unit of electricity, but once equipment and installation costs are counted they tend to win only where power costs less than about twice as much as gas.

Public sources only: the European heat pump sector association's statistics and guidance, the European Commission's own topic pages, and the IEA's heat pump collaboration, with every market figure cross-checked across at least two independent sources where possible. Every source URL was re-checked on 29 September 2026: each returned a live page and the figures attributed to it appear on it; EUR-Lex blocks automated fetching, so the two laws are cited by official identifier with provisions verified via the Commission and association pages. Not checked: country-level demand models, component pricing and margins, or interviews with market participants. The client and its figures are fictional; the industry figures are real and cited in the report. Run date: .

Sources

  1. Heat pump sales drop 21% in 2024, leading to thousands of European job losses, European Heat Pump Association (press release, 19 Feb 2025) (accessed )
  2. Heat pump sales up 9% in 2025 so far, European Heat Pump Association (17 Oct 2025) (accessed )
  3. Pump it up: why heat pump sales rose in 2025, European Heat Pump Association (March 2026) (accessed )
  4. Energy performance of buildings (EPBD): topic page, European Commission (DG ENER) (accessed )
  5. EU rules on fluorinated greenhouse gases (F-gas legislation), European Commission (DG CLIMA) (accessed )
  6. F-gas regulation guidelines (reproducing Annex VII and the prohibition tables), European Heat Pump Association (Nov 2024) (accessed )
  7. Electricity-to-Gas Price Ratio and Heat Pump Uptake, IEA Technology Collaboration Programme on Heat Pumping Technologies (31 Mar 2026) (accessed )
  8. How's the electricity to gas price looking?, European Heat Pump Association (18 Nov 2025) (accessed )

Want a research brief like this for your own question? Book a Research walkthrough.

Book a Research walkthrough

It asks before it acts

Every Ai1 agent works under human approval. Here is how the Research Agent keeps you in control.

  • It researches and explains. It never changes your agents, tools or automations itself.
  • Every finding is cited, and when it cannot find a reliable answer it says so instead of guessing.
  • It avoids paid research runs across several providers unless you approve the spend.
  • It hands strategic calls to the Leadership Strategist rather than making them for you.

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Works well with

The agents that turn the Research Agent's output into results: your whole team, working from the same place.

  • Leadership Strategist

    Hands cited findings to the Leadership Strategist, who turns them into strategic advice and recommendations.

  • Market Intelligence Analyst

    Works next to the Analyst's competitive, customer, industry and regulatory intelligence, so every research question has a home.

Frequently asked questions about the Research Agent

What is an AI research agent?

An AI research agent is an AI agent that plans a research question, reads current sources and reports back with citations. The Research Agent in Ai1 by MyZone AI covers web and market research, competitor checks and your own Google Analytics and Search Console data, as well as questions about how your Ai1 agents work.

It researches and explains, and never changes your setup or makes decisions. If your question leads to a change or a strategic call, it tells you which agent to ask.

When do you need deep research instead of a quick search?

When the question is broad or the answer matters. The Research Agent picks the lightest engine that can answer well: quick web search for simple questions, deeper research tools for bigger investigations, which come back as a readable report.

You do not have to choose a provider, but if you name one, it uses that where your access rules allow. Paid research runs across several providers only happen if you approve the spend.

Why should AI research cite its sources?

So you can see what an answer rests on before you act on it. The Research Agent names where every finding came from, states its confidence level and flags contradictions and evidence gaps plainly, instead of papering over them with a confident guess.

How accurate is the Research Agent, and what if it finds no reliable answer?

It checks current sources before answering, cross-checks important conclusions and cites where every finding came from, along with its confidence level.

If it cannot find a reliable answer, it tells you. It flags the gap and states its confidence instead of giving you an assumption dressed up as a fact.

About Ai1

Do I get just the Research Agent, or the whole platform?

The whole platform. The Research Agent is not sold on its own: every Ai1 agent, including this one, is included on Developer Pro and every Fully Managed option, with no per-agent charge. Developer Core includes the development agents. Compare plans

Two paths, one platform. Build it yourself on a developer plan, or let our team run your AI operations for you. Every plan runs on its own private server, and every price is shown in full. See Ai1 pricing

More about Ai1: security, setup time

Put the Research Agent to work

See the Research Agent answer your own question, with sources, confidence and gaps stated.

We'll show you the Research Agent on your own research question. Every finding comes with its source and a confidence level.

Plans & pricing

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