How to Source Competitive Intelligence with AI from Evalueserve

Evalueserve is a global services provider that uses AI to source competitive intelligence from public sources.

The company helps marketers, salespeople, product managers, and executives strengthen market strategy, understand the competition's strengths and weaknesses, and win more deals.

To learn how this AI-powered solution works, we spoke to Evalueserve Director, GTM Erin Pearson.

In a single sentence or statement, describe Evalueserve.

Evalueserve, founded in 2000, is a leading global professional services provider offering data analytics, advisory, and AI-enabled technology solutions and products to Fortune 1000 companies through a unique mind+machine methodology.

How does Evalueserve use artificial intelligence in its products?

Evalueserve’s artificial intelligence capabilities sources intelligence from various types of public sources such as news, job postings, websites, thought leadership, social media, and product reviews so that users can get comprehensive coverage on competitors, marketers, clients, and suppliers.

We focus on using AI to filter data for relevancy. With its unmatched speed and accuracy, AI filters relevant data at a fraction of the time it takes analysts to perform manually. Additionally, AI’s ability to continue to learn and train with each set of data it filters ensures that data can be filtered even more quickly and efficiently. Not only can AI sift through relevant information, but we also use it to summarize so that users can digest the information in a shorter amount of time.

We see the act of visualizing data as an efficient way to show trends in the data being pulled in since users can see diverse spreads of data on a single screen. Visualizations act as a catalyst for turning data and information into actionable insight. Additional filters on top of these visualizations can help users drill down into what’s really happening within their area of interest and how competitors, vendors, marketers, and prospects are responding to these changes.

What are the primary marketing use cases for your AI-powered solutions?

Our AI-enabled solutions are leveraged by marketing, sales, product managers, and executives. With such a wide range of user types, our solutions offer different use cases for each one.

For example, looking at marketing teams, these solutions strengthen their market strategy, define their positioning and messaging, understand the strengths and weaknesses of their competition, and discover current trends that will position themselves as a leader and differentiate from others.

Similarly, the solutions enable sales teams to focus on winning more competitive deals, better objection handling, and prioritize accounts based on buying triggers.

Our solutions are also flexible enough to move from function-specific use cases to big-picture use cases such as strengthening the overall corporate strategy and creating better products. Users can get a 360-degree view of their organization and spot specific areas where they can make improvements from the inside out.

What makes your AI-powered solution smarter than traditional approaches and products?

Our AI solution sets itself apart from traditional approaches and products through its comprehensive coverage, AI functionalities, and our ability to fill in the gaps that AI leaves behind.

Our solution is a one-stop shop for different use cases since it offers market, supplier, competitive, and sales intelligence.

In marketing, having a one-size-fits-all mentality neglects the fact that different kinds of intelligence are needed for different situations. Our solution adjusts itself to the user’s needs while also providing essential functionalities such as reducing repetitive work, improving distribution and impact, and providing greater reach.

We also understand that AI is a tool rather than a cure-all. Despite the leaps and bounds that it has made in the past couple of years, there are still limitations to AI such as false positives, lack of full context within AI engines, and the effort it takes to stay on top of the AI evolution. We fill the gap that AI leaves behind by providing extra filtering and human-led context.

Additionally, for niche subjects where minimal data is available, we provide a crucial layer of primary and secondary research for deeper analysis and understanding.

Are there any minimum requirements for marketers to get value out of your AI-powered technology? (e.g. data, list size, etc.)

The minimum requirement to get the most value out of our solution is to know which vendors, competitors, markets, prospects, or customers you want to track to improve your business growth and sharpen your competitive edge.

Generally, our AI-powered solution performs well when there is a lot of information in the area you are focusing on. For those without abundance information, we offer additional support that can source information from primary and secondary research.

Who are your ideal customers in terms of company size and industries?

We have experience working with companies of all sizes, whether it be companies from the Fortune 1000 or independent companies, we supported them with over 4,000 domain experts who cover different industries including financial services, corporations, and professional services.

What do you see as the limitations of AI as it exists today?

AI is really great for improving productivity, speed, and reducing repetitive tasks.

However, it isn't a cure-all and isn't a replacement for humans. AI lacks context which could lead to false positives. It's there to help collect, filter, visualize, and distribute data so humans can focus on strategic work and apply the intelligence to action and outcomes.

What do you see as the future potential of AI in marketing?

AI will play a huge role in automating campaigns and personalization.

Popular platforms like HubSpot have already used AI to send automated emails, but we envision that AI will go one step further. It will become capable of independently writing thought leadership, advertisements, and pitches based on the information it collects and analyzes.

Additionally, we see that AI will become even more personalized to the user’s needs by performing functions such as customized intelligence filtering based on individual use cases.

Any other thoughts on AI in marketing, or advice for marketers who are just getting started with AI?

AI is here to enhance your ability to do your job, not replace you! It eliminates repetitive tasks so you can focus on strategic and impactful work.

In some cases, there is even an over-reliance on AI where users do not think about the UX, workflows, and actionability of the tools they are using. AI should complement and augment your current efforts, not become the sole focus of them.