Generate Competitive Intelligence Reports

Competitive Intelligence Research Agent

This workflow automates end-to-end competitive intelligence research. It generates targeted search queries across eight strategic dimensions, gathers insights from both the web and your internal knowledge base, identifies knowledge gaps, and synthesizes everything into a publication-ready report delivered straight to your team.

What It Does

1. Generates 8 targeted search queries — An AI agent creates precise, distinct queries covering news, pricing, feature launches, hiring signals, customer sentiment, academic research, market statistics, and case studies.
2. Searches the web and your internal knowledge base in parallel — Each query runs against live internet sources and your Needle document collection simultaneously.
3. Browses and extracts from top sources — For each web query, the AI agent visits 3–5 authoritative URLs and extracts structured findings with citations and confidence levels.
4. Performs gap analysis — Compares what was found externally versus what exists internally, flagging missing or stale knowledge areas.
5. Synthesizes a full executive report — An AI agent produces a comprehensive competitive intelligence report covering all eight dimensions with source attributions.
6. Creates a role-specific action memo — Generates actionable next steps tailored for leadership, product, sales, marketing, and research teams.
7. Delivers via Google Docs, Slack, and Gmail — The final report is saved as a Google Doc, summarized in a Slack DM, and emailed as a formatted HTML message.

The 8 Research Dimensions

What You Need

• A Needle account with access to AI services
• An internal document collection (knowledge base) set up in Needle
• Google Docs integration configured for report storage
• Slack integration for executive briefing delivery
• Gmail integration for email delivery

How the Flow Works

How to Customize

1. Change the research topic — Open the Code Formatter node and update the RESEARCH_TOPIC variable to any topic you want.
2. Set target competitors — In the same node, update the TARGET_COMPANIES array with specific company names for focused intelligence.
3. Adjust the schedule — Modify the cron expression and timezone in the Scheduled Trigger node.
4. Connect your own knowledge base — Update the collection ID in the Internal Knowledge Base Search node to point to your Needle collection.

Output

The workflow produces a comprehensive Competitive Intelligence Report that includes:

• Executive summary with top strategic implications
• Detailed findings across all 8 research dimensions
• Internal vs. external knowledge gap analysis
• Confidence levels and source citations throughout
• Role-specific action memo with prioritized next steps

The report is delivered three ways: as a Google Doc for archiving and sharing, as a concise Slack message with the top findings and a link, and as a formatted HTML email.

Notes

• Report quality depends on the relevance and freshness of your internal knowledge base documents.
• Each run searches the web and browses multiple sources per query, so expect approximately 3–5 minutes of execution time.
• You can extend this workflow by adding additional delivery channels or integrating external market data APIs.
• Make sure you have appropriate access rights to internal collections before running searches.
• This workflow is ideal for market analysts, product managers, strategy teams, and competitive intelligence professionals who need consistent, structured research output.