10 Deep Research Prompts That Actually Work
10 Copy-Paste Prompts That Turn Perplexity and Claude's Deep Research Into Your Strategic Intelligence Team
You’re using Perplexity or Claude’s Deep Research like everyone else. You type a vague question, hit enter and wait 3 minutes for a wall of text that’s... fine. Sort of useful. Mostly generic.
Here’s what nobody tells you: the magic isn’t in the tool. It’s in how you structure the request. One tight query with clear parameters beats ten wandering questions every time.
Most people treat Deep Research like Google on steroids. Wrong approach. Think of it as a structured research assistant that needs specific instructions about geography, customer segments, timeframes and output format. Feed it properly, and you’ll get market landscapes, compliance mappings and competitive intelligence that actually answers your business questions.
This article gives you 10 copy-paste prompts that turn Deep Research from a fancy search into a systematic research process.
You’ll learn how to layer your queries (not dump everything into one monster prompt), force evidence quality, and combine Deep Research with specialist tools for maximum impact.
Why Most Deep Research Runs Fail
People assume the AI knows what they need. It doesn’t.
You ask “research AI compliance tools” and get a Wikipedia-style overview. No deal sizes, no buyer psychology, no pricing reality. The tool did exactly what you asked for, which was nothing specific.
The fix is process design. Three focused research layers beat one catch-all query. Specified parameters (geography, customer type, deal size, timeframe) beat vague instructions. Structured output requests beat “give me everything you find.”
Let’s build the system.
Prompt #1: Core Query Structure
What it does: Transforms vague research topics into precise, actionable Deep Research queries
When to use it: Before every Deep Research run to define exactly what you’re investigating