Webinar Recap: How Analyst Firms Have Evolved & Where They’re Heading

Curious how analyst firms are evolving with the explosion of generative AI? We recently hosted a webinar with Carter Lusher, a seasoned AR pro and former Gartner analyst, on this topic and more. Carter also evaluated (and in some cases, debunked) his previous predictions about the future of analyst firms and analyst relations. 

Those previous predictions were from 2017, when Carter joined us on a webinar to forecast which trends at the time would impact analyst firms, how firms would evolve by 2023 and how AR pros could devise a plan to thrive amidst change. Some of the actionable and emerging trends from that time included the growth of enterprise IT review sites, the possibility of auto-generated research and where analysts stand with new forms of artificial intelligence and machine learning. To access Carter’s slide deck from 2017, click here. 

Now, on our recent webinar, Carter explained that while the changes over the past five years were mostly gradual, the trends of today and his predictions for the future will be more disruptive. 

No surprise here, but on our new webinar with Carter, the topic of GenAI’s impact on both analyst relations and AR was one of the major talking points. Interestingly, even back in 2017, the discussion of how analysts would incorporate newer forms of AI into their business practices was relevant, with Carter noting that analyst firms would be slow to incorporate it. Five years later, according to Carter, the same seems to be true with analyst firms still finding their footing here.

In this new webinar, Carter predicts how GenAI will:

• Increase operational efficiencies at analyst firms and enable them to better scale
• Have a gradual roll-out approach at analyst firms
• Be adopted by boutique, mid-sized and major firms (and when), as well as individual analysts
• Prompt firms to evaluate risks related to client data
• Be used by technology buyers as well

Watch the recording for more information on these trends and how analyst relations pros can develop a plan to strategically manage these changes and better position their businesses for the future.