Trends in Competitive and Market Intelligence 2023: Artificial Intelligence and Sustainability

In our recent fishbowl discussion on March 15th, we asked more than 50 Competitive/Market Intelligence experts for trends and innovations in Competitive Intelligence.
The experts identified artificial intelligence and sustainability as two important trends in 2023. 

Summary

The use of AI tools is the most important trend in 2023

• AI can analyze data faster and more specifically than humans, but we need to learn about its limitations and how much we can trust the insights gained from AI.
• The balance of human intelligence and online intelligence has shifted over the years. With AI, the balance may swing back, but it is too early to say. Although ChatGPT 3.5 has some errors, ChatGPT 4 promises to correct them. The skill of finding information online is now available for everyone, but to gain a competitive advantage, we need to find information that AI cannot find. 
• AI will impact the competitive and market intelligence profession by creating even more information that needs to be managed and analyzed. There is a risk of a vicious cycle where even more information is created by AI, and we need these tools to analyze it because we cannot keep up.
• AI can make the data analysis process more efficient. However, AI will not replace humans completely, as human thinking and leadership are still essential.
• Integrating new tools with human expertise will be crucial for competitive experts.
• We are currently at a turning point in history where AI will drastically change society, and it is hard to predict how this will impact work and competitive intelligence.
• Big companies like Morgan Stanley and others are already leveraging GPT4 for knowledge management.

Sustainability was the second topic chosen by the audience for discussion

• Comparing a company's sustainability targets with those of its competitors is difficult, as there is no formal way of reporting sustainability targets and achievements.
• The group discussed how good governance and bad governance have differentiated companies and how competitive intelligence (CI) is promoting the identification of good companies to partner with. However, it can be argued that Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) is still more of a lip service than a competitive advantage for companies, as there is no generally accepted sustainability practice.
• One solution might be, that the stock market needs to support sustainability reporting to give companies the competitive advantage they need.
• AI could be used to monitor social governance and reduce carbon footprint.
• It is important to understand the human aspect of AI and climate change and cater to different generational mindsets.

The audience also mentioned trends like the use of blockchain for linking data and visual, the decentralization of CI, the impact of new digital communication on companies, and the ethical implications of AI and cybersecurity. Other points raised include the emerging of fake news, fake information, and biases, and the importance of ethics and trust in technology platforms.