Industry analysts are paid to give executives, investors, and other stakeholders essential insights. To capture these insights, analysts must gather data from diverse sources on hundreds of companies. Unfortunately, the other demands on their time are substantial, as they must conduct primary research, publish reports, provide advisory services, attend events, and be available for sales support. These conflicting demands create the analyst’s dilemma – how much time can they afford to spend on secondary internet research versus more profitable tasks.
Analyst’s Copilot resolves the dilemma by offering an AI-powered application to streamline information gathering. Using the product, analysts can get updated in minutes, freeing them to perform other tasks that impact their firm’s top and bottom lines. Based on the Azure Cloud platform, Analyst’s Copilot works with AI platforms ChatGPT and Cohere to be large language model (LLM) independent. The modular architecture is purpose built on an adaptable and extendable Application Programming Interface (API) framework.
Since LLMs are general-purpose systems, the founders believe Analyst’s Copilot is an early example of a trend likely to sweep many industries – B2B application software that provides measurable business benefits impossible to build with the current generation of technology.
What Industry Analysts Do
An industry analyst collects and analyzes data to evaluate existing and potential products and services within a specific market. Their work provides insights for executives, investors, and other stakeholders to help them make informed decisions. Often, they are seen as experts within a particular sector, providing guidance on market dynamics and future developments. In many industries, there is a significant overlap between the work of an industry analyst and that of a financial analyst. However, software and information technology consulting are two examples of industries where a significant proportion of the market participants are not publicly traded entities with highly regulated disclosure requirements – the usual source of information for a financial analyst.
Therefore, industry analysts must perform basic research by gathering data from many secondary sources, such as the company itself, third-party news, and interviews with key players. Only then can they identify opportunities and challenges and provide competitive insights within their area of expertise. Consequently, their first priority is identifying and monitoring competitors and researching market conditions and changes in their coverage area.
Number of Industry Analysts
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) categorizes industry analysts along with financial analysts and estimates 404,800 jobs in the broader field. Assuming 10% to 15% of the Bureau’s job estimates are industry and not financial analysts, there are 40,000 to 60,000 positions in the United States alone. Well-known analyst firms include Gartner Group, Forrester Research, IDC, Frost & Sullivan, SP Global, and Ovum.
The Analyst’s Dilemma
Analysts have many demands on their time. They must assess trends, create segment taxonomies, size markets, prepare forecasts, and develop industry models. In addition, they must publish syndicated and client-sponsored research reports, white papers, research notes, newsletters, and social media. They must also provide advisory services, including inquiries, consulting projects, and study findings to clients. They must attend industry events such as conferences, seminars, and roundtables. In addition, they frequently give presentations and webinars. They must also conduct surveys or supervise third parties to collect data. Finally, analysts must also provide sales support for their firms. With only so many hours in the day, all these tasks leave analysts little time for their primary responsibility – monitoring all the competitors in their segment.
Complicating the effort, analysts typically follow many companies. Their total addressable market is limited to the companies in their coverage area. Consequently, many individual analysts must be knowledgeable on a day-to-day basis of 100, 250, and even 500 different organizations. Given all they must deliver, where to best spend their time creates a dilemma.
Analyst’s Copilot
Our resolution to this dilemma is Analyst’s Copilot – a cloud-based, AI-powered tool that leverages LLMs to streamline the research process. The tool helps industry analysts save time by sending them regular updates tailored to their specific areas of expertise and delivered directly to their device of choice. With Analyst’s Copilot, analysts receive a concise and comprehensive summary of their entire coverage area daily, giving them more time to think, write, provide advisory services, attend events, and sell. Since LLMs are general-purpose systems, the founders believe Analyst’s Copilot is an early example of a product trend likely to sweep the technology industry – application software that provides measurable business benefits impossible to build with the current generation of technology. Consequently, they feel this will eventually become one of the hottest markets in software.