The research process is critical to all projects across all industries – providing proactive insights and knowledge so businesses can make better and more informed decisions.
But that isn’t much of a secret.
In this article, I would like to highlight and explore an example of an industry that must optimize its research processes to stay ahead – consulting firms.
What do consulting firms or in-house consultants sell? The answer is simple. Consulting firms sell expertise on various subjects to generate business strategies for their clients.
The consulting industry must constantly strive to be the best and establish themselves as the true experts in their field. Otherwise, companies will seek different firms with different consultants. Delivering actionable insights to consultants allows them to provide superior client recommendations. A proactive approach to research is critical to achieving this level of success in such a competitive space.
Solutions embedded with artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) technology ameliorate how research is conducted and showcase easily recognizable advantages to consulting firms and more. The core benefit of AI and ML for research and analysis is the capacity to generate proactive insights directly into the researcher’s workflow.
Let’s dive in further on proactive insights driving research efficiency.
Proactive Insights and the Core Benefit Explained
Proactive insights aim to help anticipate and identify core information before it becomes more widespread and universal. Monitoring trends, understanding new products, and awareness of competitor developments, permit a holistic view and complete picture of what is happening or set to occur in the market. Equipping research-intensive roles, like consultants, with these tools prepares them to pinpoint opportunities, mitigate risks, and eventually suggest practical solutions to their current and future clients.
In summary, proactive insights bring personalized and targeted results adapted to the user’s exact needs and business objectives.
A deeper understanding and more information at employees’ fingertips can never be a bad thing.
Decision-Making with all Information at Your Disposal
In addition to trend monitoring, product understanding, and competitor awareness, gaining proactive insights throughout the research process leads to uncovering patterns in the market that may alter the recommendations to clients and their business leaders. Consolidating all company and industry-specific data into a unified knowledge base enables researchers to comprehend and turn information into knowledge comfortably and proactively. Integrating solutions that offer metadata extraction and semantic relation finding creates opportunities for generating proactive insights during the entire research process.
Unmatched Client-Engagement and Enhanced Communication
Gathering information and producing knowledge through proactive insights is one thing, but communicating them to clients is a whole different story. Remaining up-to-date on all industry developments may result in endless knowledge-hunting. So how can you sort through the clutter and present the most essential tips to clients? Natural Language Question Answering (NLQA) is a machine learning discipline that can generate relevant answers to human queries as long as the model is trained on relevant data. NLQA can process a search of “Which information is most useful to my client?” and offer a tailored solution that addresses the client’s specific demands
Of course, presenting solutions that actually address the client’s need increases satisfaction for both parties. On the one hand, the client received the results they needed from the consultants they hired; on the other hand, the consultant could research quickly and productively. Overall, the proactive approach gave the client a reason to trust the consultant and continue engaging and paying them for their outstanding work. A solid and satisfying business relationship has now been built.
Get Down to Business and Focus on What Matters
Just like that, proactive monitoring and highly targeted insights saved tons of time for all stakeholders. Now, businesses can act quicker on the developments they identified, and everybody involved has more clarity. Proactivity limits the number of client complaints and lengthy meetings to adjust projects and timelines. More time can be spent on strategic analysis and efficient project completion and less on data and information gathering.
What industry do you work in? Whatever it may be, your research process can also benefit from timely and proactive insights.
