“This technology — this era — is built for analyst relations,” declared Chris Manfredi, global analyst relations director for Sprout Social, during a packed panel on “AI in AR” at ARchitect User Forum.
The session held the crowd’s rapt attention, and for good reason: AI and generative AI (GenAI) have been at the forefront of analyst relations (AR) pros’ minds for the past year. From sparking excitement to unlocking new opportunities (and even stirring up some uncertainty), the lightning-fast pace of change has everyone asking: How can we best tap into this? And what’s next?
At our User Forum, we set out to cut through the hype and dig deep into AI’s potential for AR. The panel tackled it all: real-world use cases, emerging opportunities, smart best practices, privacy considerations, and why today’s AI feels made for AR.
Here are insights that stood out from the incredible lineup of speakers: Sprout Social’s Chris Manfredi, as well as Beth Bamonte, director of analyst relations, IBM; Jerry Weltsch, head of analyst relations, Asana; and Aaron Avallon, senior director of sales, ARInsights — with our own Crystal Golightly, VP of customer experience and operations, moderating.
Something for everyone
IBM’s Beth Bamonte came at the topic of AI from a point of great comfort and familiarity: “At IBM, we have such a privilege because we’ve been in the AI space for decades,” she shared. “It’s kind of like growing up with parents who are doctors. You’re not afraid to ever go to the doctor, because [that environment] is always around you. Having AI at the core of who we are — and the core piece of our strategy — makes us have a sentiment across the company that we want to embrace AI.”
But not every organization has AI woven into its DNA — and that’s ok! For those just starting out, there’s no need to sprint. Businesses can experiment with AI at their own pace; focus on small, quick wins; and build confidence before scaling AI use across the enterprise.
With the AI in AR panel, “we wanted to make sure that we all feel represented in this journey of exploring AI, everyone from big companies to one-man teams,” said ARInsights’ Crystal Golightly.
Experiment and personalize!
Asana’s Jerry Weltsch, a former analyst with IDC and Frost & Sullivan, shared how Asana has embraced a forward-thinking approach to AI. But what really lit the spark for adoption? A creative experiment by one of their business development reps (BDRs).
“He figured out a way early on, experimenting with ChatGPT, to personalize and put tons of emails out to customers that were really impactful,” Jerry explained. Leadership’s interest was piqued, and curiosity turned into action.
“It really fostered this really interesting culture inside the company to experiment and try to figure out how AI was going to impact our roles,” Jerry continued.
Sprout Social’s Chris Manfredi started by using AI in his personal life, then soon expanded to weaving it into professional workflows.
“It’s going to transform our jobs, so, don’t be afraid of it. Experiment now because not only is it coming — it’s here, and you want it to be a part of your toolkit. Get on the train!”
AR use cases
How can AI enhance, and ease the load of, AR? From summarizing research and inquiry notes, to pulling analyst insights and next steps, to automating sentiment analysis, and more, the possibilities are both concrete and tantalizing! Panelists shared high-impact use cases including:
- AI digital assistants — “We get really, really rich results out of using AI for… creating agents in smart workflows, so we can basically automate all the toil out of work. I’ve created agents that help me draft prep docs. The next step is, ok, how do I use this to create a project that’s going to help me with an MQ response?” said Asana’s Jerry Weltsch.
- Saving hours (and hours!) on RFIs — “Our team is leading this initiative… where we’re trying to pre-populate [RFIs with AI], get 95% of the way there, and course-correct along the way. There’s never not going to be a human involved, but you still get a huge productivity gain,” shared IBM’s Beth Bamonte.
- Synthesizing information — “There’s no reason for you to actually listen to every single earnings call for a competitor when you could just take the earnings transcript and have AI digest it,” said Sprout Social’s Chris Manfredi. “You can just upload eight quarters [of earnings reports] and have a summary of what’s been happening with that company.”
- Making AR the business hero — “Using GenAI and natural language processing, I can help all the different parts of the organization,” Chris continued. “I can provide direct value, not just for that dot placement, but throughout the entire organization. And then people start to look at you as the thought-leader in the firm. You’re the one helping with these big decisions. It makes you feel good when you know you’re having a real, deep impact.”
IBM’s Beth Bamonte chimed in too: “We have a huge strategic opportunity ahead of us to be completely embedded into areas of our business where we might currently have a slim or a light touch. They could benefit so much from the insights — from branding to sales enablement.”
Connecting the dots
We’re in an information deluge! But AI is a welcome lifeboat:
“As analyst firms have exploded in content, we’re now in an era where we can actually understand and analyze it all,” Sprout Social’s Chris Manfredi said. “The next step is… when you have the intersection between knowing what the market is saying, what you’re hearing directly from analysts, and what’s said in customer reviews, you’re like an Eye of Sauron. You’ll have such a deep view of your competitive space. You’ll be THE person in your firm who can help direct the strategy and direct the impact of where it needs to go. And I think that means our job is that much more important.”
Here, here!
Asking the right questions
Generative AI can arm AR pros with game-changing insights… but only if you know how to ask for them!
“When you’re working with generative AI, you’ve got to be as specific as possible,” said Asana’s Jerry Weltsch. “I’ve found that when you’re searching for something, or you want AI to do something for you, there are four key elements that are really important to include.”
Jerry broke it down:
- Give your AI model a role. “Just tell it who it is. So, I always prompt it by saying, first, ‘You’re a member of the analyst relations team at Asana.’ Now it has context about who it is and what it’s going to do next.”
- Define the job. “The next thing is, what is the job it’s going to do? This should be a simple one-or-two sentence statement about what it’s supposed to accomplish.”
- Explain the process. “And then the third thing is: How do you want it to do this work? Give it a good example of what you want it to get done, and be as prescriptive and descriptive as possible. Include an attachment, if you can.”
- Specify the output. “The last part is, what do you want the output to look like? What’s the format so you can get consistency from that prompt?”
“If you use those four elements, and you use as much description as you can, you’re going to get exactly what you’re looking for,” Jerry added. “It may not happen the first time or the second time, but as you experiment with it, you get closer and closer — and better output all the time.”
ARInsights’ Aaron Avallon suggested taking it a step further: “When you get the output that you’re looking for, ask the model, ‘What’s the best prompt to get this exact thing again?’ Then put it in a prompt library.”
And according to IBM’s Beth Bamonte: “The innate curiosity and the relationship skills that everybody has here are going to play a really big role in how we think about how we engage AI to help us do our jobs better — because it’s going to be all about asking the right questions. So, it’s going to be really important for us to be thinking, ‘How am I asking the right question to get the right information?’ Then, you can be bringing so many more insights to your stakeholders and business that might have not been apparent before.”
You’ve got time back in your day… now what?
When it comes to AI, everyone loves to tout the same big benefit: It’ll give you time back. But then what? Enough with the vague platitudes!
Beth got real about turning reclaimed time to tangible value: “Everybody talks about how AI is going to give you time back. Then it’s the question of: What do you do with that time back? The general statement is, ‘Well, we’ll be more strategic.’ But what does that actually mean?”
Beth laid out actionable ideas, like using that extra bandwidth to deepen collaboration across teams — sharing insights, enabling other departments with analyst-driven assets, and scaling AR’s reach across the company.
“There’s so much opportunity ahead in terms of how we amplify and activate all of the information that we have, and I think that’s what is going to be so strategic. You can use these tools to do that and empower yourself and your team to be more informed, and bring that back to the business. That’s when I think there’s going to be a whole other level of value that AR brings to companies.”
Encountering roadblocks
While feeding analyst data, research and conversations into AI models can unlock powerful insights, challenges emerge — particularly when dealing with proprietary data and varying comfort levels across research firms. Some are ready to dive in; others, not so much.
“We’re flipping the table a little bit, and we have the opportunity to literally change how some of the firms operate,” Beth urged. “If we all see the value as AR professionals, that this is a game-changer for us, then… We have a job to do, to say to our firms, ‘Help us help our companies — and help you. Make sure that we have access to this information.”
However, Beth pointed out a frustrating disconnect at some analyst firms: “We’re hearing a lot of, ‘AR professionals have to be using [AI]. You have so much opportunity, so much ahead of you.’ But then, at the same time, we can’t get their information into our system to be able to synthesize it and really get the data we want out of it. So, how can we come to together to really say, ‘How can we, together, make a difference with AI for the businesses we support?’”
With great power, comes great responsibility
AR professionals, likewise, handle sensitive information, and when it comes to AI, ensuring that this data remains secure is paramount. The panelists discussed the need for robust safeguards to avoid exposing proprietary information.
“ChatGPT [the free version] makes me a little nervous,” Beth noted. “Because when you put stuff in there, it’s out in the ether. So, it’s important to remember the governance that needs to be in place.”
Asana’s Jerry Weltsch offered additional advice:
“I’ll emphasize the safe part of it too,” he said. “When you’re trying to use this technology at work — especially if you’re going to use ChatGPT or Anthropic Claude or Gemini — find a way to get paid back for getting a professional license. Because then, they’re not going to reuse your data and your information as part of their processing; they’ll be able to keep that separate. If you want to go in for a freemium one and just put in random stuff and play with it, that’s fine — but when you start working with data and information that can be proprietary, you definitely want to use a paid account to make sure that that information doesn’t get out there.”
ARInsights harnesses AI
ARInsights’ Aaron Avallon and Crystal Golightly also shared how ARInsights integrates AI into its ARchitect platform to supercharge productivity, unlock insights, and give AR teams a strategic edge.
From AI-Powered Topic Snapshots; to ARchie, your expert AI assistant; to revamped analyst profile pages; to our enhanced interactions module; to the AI assistant in ARchitect Emailer; and a whole lot more, AI is woven throughout ARchitect to drive tangible value. These tools help AR pros turn insights into action with greater speed and precision.
One standout innovation is ARchitect’s Analyst Impact Monitor, one of our most significant new launches, combining Share of Voice tracking with AI-powered sentiment analysis. This feature delivers a whole new level of intelligence to organizations, making it easier than ever to understand and act on analyst opinions and trends.
As we work to deliver the most value to our users, we embrace AI experimentation too.
For example, “we started off looking at sentiment with two sentences of an explanation of what an analyst thought about a topic or a company,” Aaron said. “We found that if we added two more sentences — and made it four — it really improved the quality of the data.
Seize the moment!
“It’s an amazing time to be in AR, because it feels like we’re at this moment of transformation,” IBM’s Beth Bamonte gushed. Using AI and GenAI in smart, innovative ways will help AR pros and their companies stay competitive and future-ready.
The technology has unleashed a seminal moment for both the business landscape and AR profession.
“[AI] is going to make our jobs more human,” Sprout Social’s Chris Manfredi declared. “ We’re not going to spend 80 to 90% of our time collecting RFI answers from all over the organization. We can actually work to put humans back into analyst relations, versus just collecting data.”
The time to act is now. AR pros who heed the call will be best-positioned to deliver unparalleled value to their organizations. The key is to use AI thoughtfully, capitalizing on its time-saving and strategic capabilities — not just jumping on the AI bandwagon for its own sake.
“[AI] is a tool in the toolbox, but unless you’re activating the tool, you’re not going to get the results you want,” Beth explained.
So, seize the moment! The AR pros who lean into this transformation with purpose and curiosity will shape the future of the profession — and they’ll do it with more time to focus on what really matters to their businesses.
Thanks again to our amazing and insightful panelists! And stay tuned as we summarize additional winning insights from ARchitect User Forum on the ARInsights blog.
