Field Guide For CI, MI & KM Leaders evaluating AI in 2026

AI in Competitive Intelligence.

A field guide for buyers. What's working, what's hype, and what to demand from any platform you evaluate.

Most CI teams are evaluating AI tools right now. Some are running pilots. A few have already adopted, and most of those have stories about what didn't work. This guide is for that evaluation: what to demand, what to ignore, how to evaluate, and where the failure modes are.

Format17-page PDF

Length7 chapters · Appendix

ForCI · MI · KM teams

Field Guide · 2026 AI in Competitive Intelligence Northern Light · 17 pages

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Download the field guide.

Frameworks, scorecards, and templates you can take into your next vendor demo.

What you'll get

Frameworks and templates your team can apply
against any AI platform you're considering.

Evaluate any AI platform against the conditions a working CI function actually requires.

Recognize the failure modes of generic AI tools (ChatGPT, Copilot, Perplexity) before they hit your work.

Run a structured pilot test against any platform you're considering.

Score vendors on the criteria that matter for CI, not the criteria they want to demo.

Place AI platforms correctly alongside adjacent tool categories your team may already use.

Sequence rollout to earn expansion through real performance.

Apply fillable templates to your evaluation, demo, and adoption process.

Who it's for

For the function, not the boardroom.

For the analysts, managers, and leaders inside competitive intelligence, market intelligence, and knowledge management functions. Whether you're already running pilots or just starting to evaluate, the failure modes and demands are the same.

CI Competitive Intelligence Directors & Analysts Function

MI Market Intelligence Leaders & Insights Teams Function

KM Knowledge Management Leads Function

↗ Already running pilots — or just starting to evaluate Stage

Not another generic AI guide

Why this isn't another
generic AI guide.

Most "AI for CI" content is written for general business audiences and stops at high-level capability descriptions. This guide is written for the function. It names specific platforms, specific failure modes, and specific tests. It's the buyer's evaluation framework written down.

Specific platforms

Named, not hand-waved.

AlphaSense Citeline Derwent PitchBook Klue Crayon + more

Specific failure modes

The mistakes that wreck pilots.

Cross-source contamination Document-level vs. claim-level provenance

Specific tests

Real questions your team has already answered.

Five-question pilot Scorecard Demo checklist 90-day plan