In this study, the (2+1)-dimensional generalized Hirota–Satsuma–Ito model is studied extensively to investigate wave dynamics of shallow water. A set of state of the art analytical approaches are being employed to acquire several fascinating wave structures. We have established a comparison between exact and numerical solutions to determine the absolute error. Moreover, the modulation instability as well as the stability of the solutions are adequately discussed. The 3D, contour and 2D plots are displayed for several interesting exact solutions to understand their behaviour. These strategies are demonstrated as more strong, effective, and efficient in developing various new wave structures which have numerous applications in several mathematical physics domains.