arthai-marketplace

/market-research

Research industry AI adoption, competitors, and trends.

Synopsis

/market-research <client-name> [--focus industry|competitors|trends]

Prerequisites

• A client profile at clients/<client-name>/profile.json (run /client-discovery first if it doesn’t exist yet)
• WebSearch tool access — this skill runs live research queries and has no offline mode

When to use it

• Building the evidence base for a proposal — adoption rates, ROI benchmarks, named case studies
• Profiling what a client’s competitors are doing with AI and where the gaps are
• Scanning emerging AI technology and regulatory shifts relevant to a client’s vertical
• Not for: the initial client intake and maturity scoring — that’s /client-discovery

Quickstart

/market-research acme-corp --focus industry

What you’ll see: a series of WebSearch queries, then a sourced research report — adoption landscape, case studies, ROI benchmarks, and a Porter’s Five Forces AI analysis — written to the client’s discovery directory.

Examples

/market-research acme-corp                     # no focus — runs all three modes sequentially (slower, ~15-25 units)
/market-research acme-corp --focus industry    # adoption rates, use cases, ROI benchmarks (fastest, single mode)
/market-research acme-corp --focus competitors # competitor AI capabilities and gaps
/market-research acme-corp --focus trends      # emerging tech, regulation, market shifts

Arguments & flags

Flag	Values	Default	What it does
--focus	industry competitors trends	all three	Limits the research to one mode

What it does

1. Loads the client profile — reads clients/<client-name>/profile.json for industry, company name, known competitors, geography, and AI maturity. If the profile is missing, it asks you to run /client-discovery <client-name> first.
2. Executes research queries — 8 WebSearch queries per focus mode, tailored to the client’s industry, competitors, and geography. Collects adoption percentages, named case studies with quantified outcomes, ROI benchmarks, and implementation barriers — all with source attribution.
3. Porter’s Five Forces AI analysis — builds an AI-specific competitive forces canvas (new entrants, vendor power, customer power, substitutes, rivalry), each force rated HIGH/MEDIUM/LOW with justification and a strategic implication for the client.
4. Synthesizes findings — each insight gets supporting evidence with citation, relevance to the client, a recommended action, and a confidence rating (HIGH/MEDIUM/LOW). Cross-references identify convergent signals, contradictions, white spaces, and urgent threats.
5. Quality checklist — before output: every claim cited, ROI numbers sourced and dated, competitor data within 12 months, no speculative claims presented as facts.

Output & artifacts

Written to clients/<client-name>/discovery/ (relative to your Arth client workspace directory), one file per focus mode:

• discovery/market-research.md — industry focus: adoption landscape, case studies, ROI benchmarks, Five Forces canvas, strategic implications
• discovery/competitive-landscape.md — competitors focus: capability matrix, per-competitor profiles, gap analysis, opportunities and threats
• discovery/industry-trends.md — trends focus: near/mid/long-term trend timeline, regulatory landscape, technology watch list

All reports end with a numbered source list.

Troubleshooting

Problem	Fix
Run /client-discovery <client-name> first	The client profile is missing or lacks industry/company_name — complete discovery before researching
Competitor mode produces thin profiles	The profile has no known competitors listed — edit clients/<client-name>/profile.json to add a competitors array, then run the skill again
Findings feel generic	Check the confidence ratings — LOW-confidence single-source insights need validation before they go in a proposal

Related

• /consulting — the engagement orchestrator; research feeds the assess and propose phases
• /client-discovery — produces the client profile this skill reads
• /opportunity-map — uses research findings when scoring initiatives
• /pitch-generator — cites this research in proposals