Example
Example of a market research report
A strong market research report should define the market, identify the major participants, explain meaningful trends, evaluate opportunities and risks, and show the evidence supporting its conclusions.
Illustrative example — fictional market scenario. Not a live customer report. Company names and figures below are invented for teaching structure only.
1. Research question
“Map the European AI scheduling software market for mid-market professional services firms: define the category, identify major participants, summarise public positioning themes, and list opportunities and risks visible in open sources.”
2. Executive summary (illustrative)
Public coverage of “AI scheduling” for European professional services clusters around calendar automation, utilisation forecasting, and client-meeting orchestration. Messaging often targets operations leads rather than individual consultants. Differentiation claims emphasise integrations and audit trails more than net-new AI features. This example does not size the market in euros — proprietary sizing requires licensed data or primary research.
3. Market definition
- Category: software that plans, assigns, or forecasts professional time using automation or ML-assisted recommendations
- Geography: Europe (EU + UK public web footprint)
- Buyer: mid-market professional services (approx. 50–500 employees) as described in public case studies
- Out of scope: consumer calendar apps; pure workforce-management suites without professional-services positioning
4. Competitive landscape (fictional participants)
Illustrative participants only — not real vendors:
- Northlane Schedule — positions as utilisation forecasting for consulting firms
- HelioDesk — emphasises client-meeting orchestration and CRM integrations
- ParcelTime EU — focuses on multi-office calendar policy and compliance messaging
Compare public pricing pages, feature lists, and recent blog themes rather than inventing market share.
5. Market developments
- Public product pages increasingly mention “AI draft schedules” with human approval steps
- Integration catalogs (calendar, CRM, time tracking) appear more often than standalone AI demos
- EU AI Act and workplace-data themes show up in vendor trust centres and blogs
6. Customer / buyer considerations
- Who owns scheduling policy: ops, partners, or IT?
- Need for audit trails when AI suggests assignments
- Data residency and client confidentiality messaging
- Switching cost from existing calendar + spreadsheet workflows
7. Opportunities
- Clearer buyer messaging for ops-led vs partner-led purchasing
- Content that explains human-in-the-loop scheduling for regulated client work
- Vertical packs (legal, accounting, architecture) with sample workflows
8. Risks
- Overclaiming autonomous scheduling without governance
- Thin differentiation if integrations become table stakes
- Public sources may lag actual product capability — verify demos
9. Questions that require further research
- Primary interviews with buyers in target verticals
- Licensed market-sizing or analyst reports where required
- Hands-on product evaluation and security review
10. Source methodology
A ResearchAO report would cite the public pages, articles, and filings it used. Review sources independently — see methodology. This illustrative page intentionally omits fabricated URLs and statistics.
11. Example ResearchAO prompt
“Build a source-backed market landscape for AI scheduling software aimed at mid-market professional services firms in Europe. Define the market, list major public participants, summarise positioning and recent developments, and call out opportunities and risks. Cite sources. Do not invent market size figures.”
Related: market research, automated competitor research, and more research report examples.
Run your own market research
Use the structure above as a starting brief — then ask ResearchAO to investigate a real market with citations.