Most firms know exactly who they compete with. What they rarely have is the time to check what those competitors are doing, so the research happens once a year before a strategy day and is out of date by spring.
AI tools such as ChatGPT and Claude can now do most of that checking. The danger is that they produce pages of summaries nobody reads. Used well, they give you a few things each month that are worth a decision.
Below is how we approach it, with eight prompts you can copy. Replace anything in square brackets with your own details.
Start with a page about your own firm
AI tools fill gaps with guesses, and that includes guesses about you. Before asking about anyone else, write a one-page note on your own firm covering what you do, who your clients are, where you work, any fees you publish and the firms you most often lose work to.
Paste it in at the start of each conversation, or save it as a project file in ChatGPT or Claude so it is always there. Update it whenever something changes. Every prompt below works better with it.
Gather the facts
1. Check competitor websites for changes
Websites are where competitors show their hand first, in a new service page, a published price or a new hire.
Visit the websites of [competitor 1], [competitor 2] and [competitor 3]. List any new services, published prices, offices, team members or offers that have appeared since [date], with a link to each page. If you cannot tell whether something is new, say so.
Some AI tools can run a prompt like this on a schedule, so the results arrive every Monday without anyone having to remember.
2. Learn from the enquiries you did not win
Some of the best competitor information you have is already in your own notes. When someone enquires and goes elsewhere, your team often records why. Take out names and contact details before pasting anything in, and check which AI tools your firm allows.
Below are notes from [number] enquiries over the last [period] that did not become clients. Personal details have been removed. Group the reasons given, count how often each comes up, and list every competitor mentioned with what was said about them. Quote the notes rather than paraphrasing them.
3. See which firms AI tools recommend
More people now ask ChatGPT or Perplexity which firm to use. Ask the question a client would ask, in their words, and see who comes back.
I am looking for [service] in [town or city]. Which firms would you recommend, and why? List the sources you used.
Answers vary from one day to the next, so run it in more than one tool and repeat it each month. The firms that keep appearing are the ones to watch. We track this for clients across a fixed set of questions with a tool called Peec AI; our AI SEO page explains how.
Connect the signals
4. Build a timeline
One new page means little on its own. Six months of changes in date order often shows where a competitor is heading.
Using the notes and links below, put everything [competitor] has done in the last 12 months in date order, including new services, hires, prices, offices, press coverage and campaigns. Then say in two or three sentences what you think they are trying to achieve, and how confident you are.
5. Compare what they say with what their clients say
A competitor's website shows how they want to be seen. Their reviews show how clients actually see them, and the gap between the two is often where your opening is.
Here is the text of [competitor]'s home page and their last [number] Google reviews. Compare what the firm claims with what clients praise and complain about. Where do the two agree, and where do they not?
Make better decisions
6. Pressure-test a plan
AI tools tend to agree with whoever is asking. Ask them to argue with you instead.
We are planning to [decision, for example start publishing our fees]. Using what you know about our firm and our competitors, argue against it. What could go wrong, how might competitors respond, and what would you want to know before going ahead?
7. Prepare for a pitch
We are pitching against [competitor] for [type of client or work]. Based on the information below, set out where they are likely to be stronger than us, where we are stronger, and the questions the client may ask us as a result. Mark anything you have not been able to check.
8. Write a one-page monthly brief
Research only helps if it reaches the people who make decisions, and most of them will read one page.
Using everything in this conversation, write a one-page brief for our monthly management meeting. Start with the two or three things that matter most and what we should do about each. Keep everything else to one line, and mark anything that has not been checked.
Check before you act
AI tools still make things up, and they will report a wrong price or a hire that never happened with complete confidence. Treat every finding as a lead, keep the links, and have someone check it before it reaches a decision, a pitch or your own website.
Done this way, the tools handle the hours of reading and you keep the judgment, which is how we use AI in our own work.