How to Make Gen AI Your Full-time Market Research Intern

If there’s one thing product managers and product marketing managers wish they had more time for, it’s market research. No sales situations, no customer issues, just pure market research without any agenda other than gaining an unbiased view of the market so they can be more effective in their roles, especially strategy and planning.

It’s no fun to get scrutinized, questioned and second-guessed at every turn. The daily grind in the trenches though makes it almost impossible to do market research to the extent necessary to make strong market-driven decisions that are defensible, and at the same time, keep stakeholders energized and engaged.

Summer Intern Anyone?

Interns, while helpful, aren’t a long-term answer for a couple of reasons.

First, they’re not as easy to find as they used to be and even if they are, you still have to take the time to train them, and then they’re only with you for a short time.

Second and even more important, the process of doing market research even if you have a fulltime person doing it, is still terribly time-consuming and inefficient.

Think about how much time it takes to find reputable sources, comb through mounds of reports, pull out the most critical nuggets, and distill them down into something that’s succinct, consumable and actionable, and do it with consistency. It’s a tall order.

Consider using generative AI for market research and you’ll have a fulltime intern for as long as you want. It does require some training but not nearly as much as the real intern, and you’ll probably never push its limits on scalability.

The theme throughout the remainder of this article is generative A.I. is not a replacement for doing market research. It’s a shortcut to give you a better education on your target markets and customers so that you’re more effective building, marketing and selling your solutions.

And for right now, it’s critical to VERIFY! VERIFY! VERIFY!

What Does Market Research Encompass?

Market research generally falls into two broad categories.

1. Market dynamics and trends and their influence on the business of your target customers, strategically and operationally.
2. Trends in your product category including growth and adoption rates, market size, competitive and technology trends, emerging markets, etc.

Since the bigger deficiency relative to product management and product marketing falls into the first category, target markets and customers, let’s go through an example and see how it plays out with generative A.I.

In this example, the target market is healthcare and ChatGPT is the AI engine.

I’ll step through this example using our Solutions Value Chain Framework. Give it a quick look and the example will be easier to follow because it uses a top-down approach for uncovering strategic customer value to drive your product priorities, marketing messages and sales tactics.

Market Dynamics Driving the Business of Your Target Customers

I asked ChatGPT three versions of the same question, each yielding slightly different results. Here they are.

1. What are the market trends driving the healthcare industry?

It gave me 10 solid trends here, all legit, so then I asked the same question with two additional nuances. I added the word macro to trends and narrowed the industry segment to hospitals.

2. What are the “macro” market trends driving the “hospital” industry?

The result yielded similar answers but in completely different order and with additional details that are valuable. For example, instead of just giving me aging population and focus on long term elderly care ranked at #9, it gave me aging population and rising chronic diseases at #1 and then listed specific action items on what healthcare providers are doing to deal with it.

Again, based on my knowledge of healthcare, all trends are legit. Priorities are the big question though if you’re taking a broad market view.

For my third question, I donned my product manager/product marketing manager hat and went straight for top priorities and the BIG WHY! This is the type of knowledge we need when interacting with stakeholders as it boosts the credibility of our decisions, priorities and plans.

3. What are the top 3 market trends driving the hospital industry and why are they important?

Here’s the summarized result. The top three market trends driving the hospital industry today are digital transformation, value-based care, and workforce challenges (staffing shortages and burnout). These trends are critical because they directly impact the way hospitals deliver care, manage costs, and ensure sustainability in an evolving healthcare environment.

It elaborated on each of the above, again with incredibly valuable details and context. One of the most valuable things for me is I feel like the way the information is given to me would make me far more articulate in a conversational setting.

Back to VERIFY!

Based on my knowledge of healthcare, everything here looks to be real and current, and it’s totally tempting to just run with it. But I don’t know what I don’t know! I’d have further conversations with customers or other healthcare experts just to verify the completeness, accuracy, context and priorities.

Here’s the other thing, and you already know this drill. Someone is going to ask, “Where did you get this information?” and you’ll need something better than “ChatGPT told me!”

The Strategic Impact of the Market Trends on Your Target Customers

The purpose of the next set of questions is to understand how the market dynamics are shaping the strategic priorities of your target customers at the highest (executive) levels. This information is key as it takes us to the operational areas of the business that are most important to improve and where our products are/can be most valuable. It’s gold of you’re in marketing, sales or product.

I asked ChatGPT the following three questions and again, the first two yielded similar results, albeit in slightly different order and with more or less context.

Here they are.

1. How are healthcare CEOs dealing with these trends?

2. How are hospital CEOs dealing with these trends?

3. How are hospital CEOs investing strategically because of these trends?

The third question is my favorite because it’s aimed straight at what’s really important here and it’s actionable, something that’s critical regardless of your role.

ChatGPT responded with very specific initiatives here. It gave me details on where digital transformation is most critical like specific A.I. investments and how they’re helping deal with inefficiencies and labor shortages.

Again, it all seems legit but critical to verify. The good news on the verification front is that you don’t have to start from scratch. You can preface your conversations with, “here’s our understanding of the market and how it’s impacting your organization.”

Normally, I’d say this is like leading the witness but since products aren’t a part of this conversation, it’s a good shortcut to verify what you know and get further context. It also doesn’t put others on the defensive because you’re not asking them to start from scratch where they feel like their industry knowledge is being tested, plus your knowledge of the market earns further trust and credibility.

The Operational Impact of the Strategic Priorities in [Department]

Once you understand what’s driving your target customers strategically, it’s important to understand how those strategic priorities influence the operational priorities in the areas of their business where your products are currently used or could be used.

In my hospital example, we’ll use nursing as our target customer department. I asked ChatGPT the following questions.

1. How do these investments affect nursing?

2. What are nursing’s top priorities because of these investments?

The response to question #2 was far superior in my opinion because it told me exactly what nursing’s priorities are, why, and what they’re doing about it, including specific action items, whereas the response to question #1 gave me high-level information that was more directional but without any specifics.

Job Changes in [Department]

As we continue our top-down discovery one layer at a time, the next area of focus is to understand how the operational priorities for nursing affect or change the jobs of people in their day-to-day routines.

Notice how we’re getting closer and closer to something that’s relevant to one or more of your products — the jobs of current or would-be users.

I gave ChatGPT the two following questions.

1. What jobs will change the most in nursing because of these priorities?

For this question, ChatGPT told me what jobs will change, how they’ll change and the skills needed to support the changes. All good, but…

It gets better with the second question.

2. What parts of a nurse’s job will change most because of these priorities?

For this question, ChatGPT told me what jobs will change, how they’ll change and, here’s the best part, what nurses will have to do differently because of these changes?

The reason I’m all lathered up over the response to #2 is because it simply makes me smarter about nursing at a level that’s critical for building, marketing and selling products. The response to #1 complements the response to #2. Together, they make me feel like a borderline expert! Remember to VERIFY!

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Ask AI for Sources

Don’t be afraid to ask you’re AI engine for sources. I asked ChatGPT to ”name your sources for this information.” It quickly spit out reputable companies and publications like McKinsey & Co, Deloitte, HFMA, etc.

The Bottom Line on Generative AI and Market Research

The thing I love most about using generative AI for market research is I feel like it makes me a lot smarter about the markets I’m researching, and even more articulate when communicating my knowledge about those markets as part of my job.

The way you ask the questions though can make a big difference in the context of the information you get. This is critical. Experiment with variations on the same questions to see the differences.

Generative AI is not a replacement for doing market research. It’s just a far more efficient way of doing it that’ll make you more market savvy than you’d otherwise be, even if you had time to do it the old-fashioned way.

The verification piece is critical because AI is still immature. Although it’s growing up quickly, it still makes up answers out of thin air all too often. That’ll (hopefully) change as time goes on.

Let’s go back to why market research for product management and product marketing is so critical to success in the first place.

You’re expected to create the organization’s product vision and then execute it in a way that delivers strategic value to both your customers and your own organization.

Living up to those leadership expectations means you have to be more knowledgeable than all other disciplines on the markets and the business of your target customers both strategically and operationally.

Given all your other responsibilities, acquiring that level of market knowledge and staying current is an unrealistic expectation for many of you.

Until now.

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