In less than three years since its release, ChatGPT and other AI tools have shaped the way we work, learn, and communicate in ways that were unthinkable before.
If you’re part of a generation that grew up online, you might already be using AI in some form. This goes for businesses, too.
According to a study by Mckinsey in 2024, “Sixty-five percent of respondents say their organizations are regularly using gen AI in at least one business function.” In business, says the same study, AI is used the most in marketing and sales, and in product and service development.
The use of AI inevitably leaks over to competitive analysis, a pillar of creating a healthy marketing strategy. Many marketers are already experimenting with the use cases of LLMs and generative AI for tracking competitors and refining their marketing strategies.
In this article, I want to explore how businesses can use AI for marketing, particularly competitor analysis, and its benefits. AI-powered competitive intelligence tools will also be introduced, plus the ways to use them.
However, automated competitor analysis is a work in progress. But sooner or later, everyone will have to adopt these new technologies. Why don’t we start now?
What is AI-powered competitor research and analysis?
Unfortunately, AI alone cannot conduct competitor analysis for you, in the truest sense. That means, to do everything from setting your goals, gathering information, analyzing that information, and knowing what to do with the information, much less applying it. That is a pipe dream as of yet.
Artificial intelligence and machine learning automate the brunt work of competitor analysis (collecting information over time) and can even analyze and interpret the data for you.
That is not what I will talk about when I mention competitor analysis using AI. To put it in a different way, you can use AI to automate competitor intelligence in one form or another. This involves collecting data, summarizing the data, and extracting basic insights.
Why people skip competitive analysis
Simply put, competitive analysis is a tedious job. You take screenshots of newsletters, download video ads, and regularly check in on websites.
Repeat that for social media profiles, review sites, landing pages…you get the gist. No wonder people skip this altogether or do a shoddy job, rendering their insights useless.
Benefits of AI-powered competitor analysis
Artificial intelligence and machine learning automate the brunt work of competitor analysis (collecting information over time) and can even analyze and interpret the data for you.
It’s a game-changer because it takes human error out of the equation and eliminates the need to read through vast amounts of information. You can then spot trends and patterns quickly and accurately.
Also, unlike you, AI works 24/7. You can be updated in real time and with precision that manual methods lack.
Because of this, AI-powered competitor analysis is scalable because of its efficiency. As your business grows, it can keep up with growing marketing demands.
Here are some applications of AI for marketing:
- Website monitoring
- Social listening and sentiment analysis
- Content marketing strategy
- Making predictions based on historical data
Two kinds of AI-powered competitor research and analysis
- Basic competitor research
A one-off competitor research involves asking AI chatbots and other similar tools questions pertaining to your competitors. Then, these tools will scan the web looking for answers to your queries.
This type of research is ideal for businesses who want an immediate snapshot of their competitive landscape and want quick answers. In other words, it’s a good preliminary step but doesn’t cover the wide spectrum of competitor research you need.
Some tool suggestions for this type of AI-powered competitor research are:
- ChatGPT
- Claude
- Gemini
- Perplexity
- Google NotebookLM
- Bardeen
These are just skimming the surface of AI tools. New ones are popping up wherever you look, so look around and see what fits your business the best.
- Continuous and automated competitor research
The second type of AI-powered competitor research is more extensive because it is an ongoing effort to monitor your competitors over time.
For example, you keep track of your competitor’s product launches and advertising campaigns throughout the year so that next year you can prepare for your marketing calendar.
You can also set up automated reports or summaries of your competitors’ online activity to be sent to you weekly, daily, or another interval you prefer.
This kind of research entails more sophisticated monitoring tools like Panoramata. Through tools like these, you get real-time updates, a pulse on pricing changes, and anything that you need to flag and take action on.
Continuous competitor research tools powered by AI automate everything from data collection to reporting, freeing you up to do more productive tasks.
Automating with Panoramata: Competitor Monitoring Done for You
Panoramata is an ideal AI competitor tracking tool for teams and brands who want to automate their competitor tracking in one platform. It automatically tracks newsletters, email marketing flows, ads, landing pages, website changes, social media, and many more.
Panoramata allows you to get rid of repetitive tasks and get your actual work done. Here are just some benefits of using Panoramata for your business:
- Receive marketing summaries of the latest competitor updates in your email, Slack, or on the Panoramata dashboard
- Monitor ads on several networks (Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, TikTok, and more)
- Track your competitors’ email marketing campaigns without signing up for their mailing list
- Search through an organized database of SMS, emails, and ads
- Track landing pages and website pages, as well as changes made to those pages
- Build custom industry benchmarks that you can share easily with clients or teammates
Panoramata gives you a powerful competitive advantage and will change the way you do competitor analysis for good.
Discover your competitive strengths and take advantage of opportunities with our free SWOT analysis template. If you’d like to learn more about Panoramata, book a demo with us or take it out for a spin by signing up here.
FAQs
How to do competitor analysis using AI?
Doing competitor analysis with AI is about moving from manual, time-consuming data collection to an automated, insightful process. Instead of having a team member spend hours sifting through social media feeds and news articles, AI does the heavy lifting for you.
Can ChatGPT do a competitor analysis?
Yes, but with important limitations. Think of ChatGPT and similar large language models (LLMs) as incredibly powerful research assistants, not fully automated monitoring systems.
How do I automate business processes with AI?
Automating business processes with AI is all about identifying repetitive, data-heavy tasks and letting a smart system handle them. First, identify bottlenecks (tasks that are time-consuming and repetitive). Next, pick an AI tool made especially for competitor tracking or whatever goal you have. Finally, integrate the tool into your workflow and train your AI tool.
Which AI-powered tool enables real-time competitor activity monitoring?
Panoramata is an AI-powered tool that is purpose-built for competitor tracking. It goes beyond search engines and web data. It can monitor changes to a competitor's website, detect new marketing content, track pricing updates and product launches, and so much more.
