AI for Competitor Research: 15 Minutes a Week to Smarter Insights
We all know competitor research is crucial. Your sales team needs it, your CEO demands it, and your product team wants to know what features everyone else is shipping yesterday.
Stepping back though, who actually has 20 hours a week to spend manually trawling news sites, social media, and press releases? It’s a tall order to fill for small businesses.
What if I told you there’s a way to get valuable insights—on funding, product launches, strategic moves—in just 15 minutes a week, using tools you likely already have? It’s the genius of using AI, and one approach shared by Matt Serna (CMO at Replicant) has been a game-changer.
The 5-Step AI Competitor Research Playbook
The magic is in the process, and it starts with a solid prompt. Here’s the simplified version of Matt’s workflow:
- Get a Good Prompt: This is key! Give your AI a persona (“Act as a research assistant…”), clear goals (who it’s for, what to look for), and specify your product categories and competitors by name. Tell it exactly what details you want, like funding news or product launches.
- Fact-Check Lightly: AI can sometimes get things wrong (hallucinate, as they say). Quickly glance over the output to verify the facts and sources.
- Tweak the Results: Make the output feel like your business talking. Edit the “news” and “why it matters” sections so they sound natural.
- Trim the Fat: Remove info about competitors who haven’t had meaningful updates. Keep it focused.
- Share Smartly: Paste the condensed, relevant info into a Slack channel or your team’s communication hub, tagging the right people.
And that’s it—15 minutes.
What the Output Looks Like: Actionable Insights
You’ll get a simple, effective format:
- Competitor Name:
- What’s the News: A brief summary of what happened.
- Why It Matters: A quick analysis of why this update is important for your industry.
- Implications for Us: What specific actions you might need to consider.
This gives you intel on funding, product changes, staff moves, and strategic shifts—all without you having to do the legwork.
Making It Work for Your Team
Matt’s team uses this for different purposes:
- For the Whole Team (Newsletter/Slack): Longer-term insights for strategy, product marketing, and leadership—focusing on market trends and big shifts.
- For Sales (Custom GPT): A quick-access, on-demand competitive intelligence tool sales reps can query in real-time for immediate answers.
Your Turn: Start Simple
You don’t need a fancy setup to try this. This week:
- List your main competitors and product areas.
- Figure out the key news you want to track.
- Build your prompt and try it out for 15 minutes.
It’s a small time investment with a huge payoff, helping you stay informed and strategic in a fast-moving market.
Ready to stop guessing and start gaining an edge? Let me know how your first AI competitor research goes, or if you want a hand crafting that prompt. Happy to chat!
