What can AI agents and agentic browsers (ChatGPT agent, Comet, Operator) do for my research, and are they worth it?

Agentic tools do not just read the web, they act on it: they browse, click, fill forms, compare options across sites and assemble the result into a report, spreadsheet or deck. For founders they shine on multi-step grunt work like comparing vendors, monitoring competitors or compiling lists that need visiting dozens of pages. They are still early: verify their output, be careful giving them logged-in access, and watch the prompt-injection security issues before trusting them with anything sensitive.

A quick orientation. The real value is below: resources worth your time, from people who've actually done it.