Why Competitive Intelligence still needs the human edge
Posted by | Michele Sachar
Strategic Consortium of Intelligence Professionals (SCIP)‘s IntelliCon in New Orleans was largely devoted to understanding Competitive Intelligence (CI) in an AI world, as well as the role of primary research. My assessment of both the conference and the intelligence landscape is a contradictory one, with two forces at work:
- ”Disruptive innovations create jobs, whereas efficiency innovations destroy them.” — Clay Christensen
- “The more things change, the more they stay the same.” — Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr, 19th century critic (Translated from the French: “Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose”)
I attended the conference and ran two sessions alongside my colleague, Fuld & Company’s Chief Knowledge Officer Mike Ratcliffe. One was a half-day workshop on Scenario Planning, and one was a talk on how to leverage AI to learn from your competitors’ mistakes to create and drive winning products and services.
Even before the conference, it has been clear for some time that technology has been impacting the research sphere. In the competitive intelligence world, providers of technology-powered information gathering services have been trying to replace human data-gathering, but none of these initiatives have so far come close to driving away the need for humans. Some of the newer platforms are terrific, although these are managed as subscription platforms, leveraged by humans.
So where does that leave CI professionals?
First, let’s consider the quote above from Clay Christensen, my first year Operations professor at Harvard Business School.
- Have AI tools created efficiency? Yes.
- Will they continue to do so? Absolutely.
- Does this mean that AI will destroy CI jobs? Well, the jury is still out on that.
As we presented at SCIP, leveraging AI to innovatively gain new insights in ways that were impossible before will actually create new jobs. At a minimum, these disruptions will drive the need to maintain knowledgeable experts to understand what is relevant to explore, and how to interpret the power that AI brings.
Second, let’s consider the above quote from Alphonse Karr. The role of the CI professional remains as critical as ever. New technologies that are disrupting the way we work and the products and services we sell need to be monitored — who will advise product managers and strategy teams on the way forward? It’s the CI professional who is best positioned to assist. And as of yet, there is no AI replacement that can supersede classic primary intelligence: up-to-date, verbal insights drawn from expertly-led conversations.
Our interactions with attendees at IntelliCon have reaffirmed the imperative for Competitive Intelligence. The ways in which AI will innovate the techniques to drive both efficiencies and insights is ever evolving.
Learn more about Fuld’s Competitive Intelligence and Scenario Planning services.
Download Fuld’s Early Warning and Scenario Planning Toolkit
Watch Beyond Sales & Strategy: How to Leverage Competitive Intelligence Across Your Entire Business
Tags: Artificial Intelligence (AI), Competitive Intelligence, Competitive Strategy
