Discover New Competitors with Deep Research
Automatically discover new competitors in your market using AI-powered web research, then track them in Google Sheets and get notified via Slack
Last updated
January 10, 2026
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Key Takeaways
- AI-powered web research - An AI agent with web browsing and search tools finds companies matching your criteria automatically
- Built-in deduplication - Each discovered company is checked against your existing Google Sheet so only new entries are added
- Structured data capture - Extracts fields like company name, country, specialization, client name, industry, solution type, and contact info
- Runs daily on a schedule - Default trigger fires at 6 AM UTC every day to continuously scan for new results
What This Workflow Does
This workflow uses AI to search the web for companies that match a research prompt you define, then checks each result against an existing Google Sheet to filter out duplicates. Only new, previously untracked companies are added to the spreadsheet. It is designed for ongoing competitive intelligence, lead discovery, or market research where you want to continuously find new players without manual searching.
Use cases:
- Discovering emerging competitors in your market
- Building a lead list of companies in a specific niche
- Tracking new entrants in your industry over time
How It Works
| Step | What Happens |
|---|---|
| 1. Scheduled Trigger | The workflow fires daily at 6 AM UTC |
| 2. Read Existing Sheet | An AI node reads the current contents of your Google Sheet to know what is already tracked |
| 3. AI Web Research | An AI agent with web search and browsing tools finds companies matching your research prompt, returning structured data as a JSON array |
| 4. Split Results | A code node converts the agencies array into individual items for per-company processing |
| 5. Check for Duplicates | For each company, an AI node queries the Google Sheet and marks it as new or already tracked |
| 6. Merge | Combines the original company data with the new/existing flag |
| 7. Filter New | Only companies marked as new pass through |
| 8. Filter Existing | Companies already in the sheet are filtered out |
| 9. Upsert to Sheet | An AI node adds each new company to the Google Sheet using upsert, find, and add row tools |
Workflow Nodes
| Node | Role |
|---|---|
| Scheduled Trigger | Fires the workflow daily at 6 AM UTC |
| AI Read Sheet | Reads existing data from Google Sheets using the get_values_in_range tool |
| AI Research Agent | Searches the web with browse_web_page and search_internet tools, returns structured output |
| Code (Split Results) | Converts the structured agencies array into individual items |
| AI Check Duplicates | Checks each company against the Google Sheet, outputs company_name and a new/existing boolean |
| Merge | Combines original company data with the duplicate-check result |
| Filter (New) | Passes only companies flagged as new |
| Filter (Existing) | Catches companies already tracked (filtered out of the main flow) |
| AI Upsert to Sheet | Writes new companies to Google Sheets using upsert_row, get_values_in_range, find_row, and add_single_row tools |
Setup Instructions
- Add the "Discover New Competitors with Deep Research" template to your Needle workspace
- Copy the template Google Sheet linked in the workflow sticky notes to your own Google Drive
- Create a Google Sheets connector in Needle and select it in all AI nodes that use Google Sheets tools
- Update the Google Sheets URL in the AI node prompts to point to your copied sheet
- Edit the AI Research Agent prompt to describe your own company, product, or the type of competitors you want to find
- Run the workflow manually once to verify results appear in your sheet
Customization
| What You Can Change | How |
|---|---|
| Research criteria | Edit the prompt in the AI Research Agent node to describe your target market, product type, or competitor profile |
| Schedule frequency | Change the cron expression on the Scheduled Trigger (e.g., weekly instead of daily) |
| Data fields captured | Modify the structured output schema in the AI Research Agent to add or remove fields |
| Google Sheet columns | Update the column headers in the AI Upsert node prompt to match your sheet structure |
| AI model | Swap the model in any AI node if you prefer a different provider |
FAQ
Q: What data fields are captured for each company? A: By default: agency_name, agency_country, case_study_url, specialization, client_name, client_industry, solution_type, target_department, email, and target_person.
Q: How does deduplication work? A: After the AI research step, each company is checked individually against your Google Sheet using a separate AI node with the get_values_in_range tool. Companies already present are filtered out before any writes happen.
Q: Can I use this for something other than competitor discovery? A: Yes. The research prompt is fully customizable. You can use it to find agencies, vendors, partners, or any type of company that matches criteria you define.
Q: What happens if the AI finds no new companies? A: The filter node will pass zero items through, so no rows are written to the sheet and the workflow completes without changes.
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