Use case
Automate competitor research without losing the sources
ResearchAO lets you investigate competitors on demand or schedule the same research to run repeatedly, producing source-backed reports on companies, products, positioning, and changes over time.
What is automated competitor research?
Automated competitor research is a repeatable process for collecting and analysing public information about competitors without manually rebuilding the same research workflow each time. ResearchAO turns a stable brief into on-demand or scheduled reports with citations you can open and verify.
What can competitor research uncover?
Useful signals usually leave traces on the open web. Typical public themes include:
- Product launches and feature messaging
- Pricing-page and packaging changes
- Positioning and customer messaging
- Partnerships and market-expansion cues
- Hiring themes and leadership announcements
- Website and content strategy shifts
- Public strengths, weaknesses, and industry developments
ResearchAO works from publicly available sources. It does not claim access to private dashboards, non-public financials, or proprietary competitor datasets.
Automate competitor research
Traditional competitor work often looks like: search → open dozens of tabs → collect sources → compare findings → repeat next week. To automate competitor research with ResearchAO, define the companies and questions once, receive a structured source-backed report, then schedule the same brief so later runs stay consistent.
- Write a fixed brief naming competitors and questions
- Run Standard or Deep research once to validate the brief
- Convert it to a weekly or monthly schedule
- Review updates in the app or via webhook
Example competitor research questions
- “What has [Competitor] changed in its product positioning during the last six months?”
- “Compare [Company A], [Company B] and [Company C] across product, pricing, market positioning and recent strategic developments.”
- “What new markets appears [Company] to be targeting based on public evidence?”
- “What meaningful developments have occurred around [Competitor] since my previous report?”
- “Build a competitive landscape for companies offering [category] in Europe.”
Try these research prompts
- “Compare the current product positioning of [A], [B] and [C].”
- “Find meaningful changes involving [Competitor] during the last 90 days.”
Copy a prompt into ResearchAO after you start research. Runs only begin when you explicitly confirm them.
Recurring competitor monitoring
Turn one competitor report into ongoing monitoring with scheduled research: run weekly, monthly, or on a fixed day to watch specific competitors or a market category. ResearchAO is not a real-time alert firehose — schedules run on the cadences you configure (once, daily, weekly, or monthly).
What a ResearchAO competitor report can contain
Depending on your brief, reports commonly organise findings around:
- Executive summary
- Key developments
- Competitive positioning
- Product / service comparison themes
- Evidence and citations
- Risks and opportunities visible in public sources
- Source list for verification
See an illustrative competitor monitoring report. Related: market research and research methodology.
Competitor research through the API
The same research engine is available to apps and agents via the Deep Research API. For agent workflows — including Monday competitor checks — see research for AI agents.
Common questions
- Can competitor research be automated?
- Yes. Define a fixed research brief, run it once to validate the questions, then schedule the same brief daily, weekly, or monthly so ResearchAO produces updated source-backed reports without rebuilding the workflow each time.
- What information can competitor research uncover?
- Public signals such as product launches, pricing-page messaging, positioning changes, partnerships, hiring themes, leadership announcements, market-expansion cues, and other developments visible on the open web. ResearchAO does not access private or proprietary competitor data.
- How often should competitor research be updated?
- It depends on how fast the category moves. Many teams run weekly or monthly schedules for core competitors, and one-off deep runs when a major launch or rumour appears.
- Can ResearchAO monitor competitors repeatedly?
- Yes. Pair a stable competitor brief with scheduled research so each run uses the same questions and effort level, making reports easier to compare over time.
- Can an AI agent run competitor research?
- Yes. Agents can start research runs and schedules through the Deep Research API with a scoped personal API key, then consume the structured report. See research for AI agents and the API docs.
Run competitor research on ResearchAO
Start with a one-off report, then schedule it when the brief is stable.