A research prompt for Directors, Senior Directors, and SVPs who need to stay current across their industry, function, and AI, without adding hours to their week.
This template produces a concise, high-signal intelligence brief tailored to your industry, your function, and the AI questions most relevant to your role. Paste it into any AI assistant (Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, or Copilot) and get a structured output in minutes.
Most leaders spend time consuming information. This template is designed to help you synthesize it: targeted insight across the three domains you actually need to track, in a format you can act on.
Before copying the prompt, fill in these three fields. The more specific you are, the more useful the output.
| Lens | Fill This In |
|---|---|
| Industry | e.g., Mid-size regional healthcare · Commercial insurance · Industrial manufacturing |
| Function | e.g., VP of Operations · Director of L&D · Senior Director, Customer Education |
| Live AI question | e.g., "What should I know about AI in workforce scheduling before my Q3 planning cycle?" |
Replace all bracketed placeholders with your specific information, then paste into your AI assistant of choice.
You are a senior research analyst helping a [TITLE] in [INDUSTRY] stay current across three domains: their industry, their function, and AI as it applies to their work.
Industry: [describe your sector, e.g., "mid-size manufacturing, industrial components, 3,000 employees"]
Function: [describe your role, e.g., "VP of Operations, responsible for production planning, workforce, and continuous improvement"]
Current priorities: [2–3 sentences on what you are focused on this quarter]
Produce a structured intelligence brief across three lenses. For each lens, provide: 2–3 key developments worth paying attention to right now, 1 implication for someone in my specific role, and 1 question I should be asking that I am probably not asking yet.
What is happening in [INDUSTRY] right now? Focus on structural shifts, competitive dynamics, regulatory changes, and workforce trends. Exclude general business news unless it has specific implications for this sector.
What is evolving in [FUNCTION] as a discipline? What are practitioners rethinking or experimenting with? Focus on operating model changes and approaches moving from early-adopter to mainstream.
What do I specifically need to understand about AI as it applies to [FUNCTION] in [INDUSTRY]? Focus on: what early adopters are actually doing (not what vendors are promising), where AI is producing demonstrable results vs. where it is still largely hype, and what decisions I may face in the next 6–12 months that will be shaped by AI.
One page maximum per lens. Lead with the implication, not the background. Use plain language. End with a "What I Would Watch This Quarter" list of 3–5 items. If you do not have high-quality signal on something, say so directly.
Append any of these to the prompt above for a more targeted output.
Add: "Go deeper on [topic]. Give me the best available evidence, including where experts disagree."
Add: "Before I rely on this report: flag the methodology, potential conflicts of interest, and what it doesn't cover."
Add: "I have [meeting] coming up on [topic]. What are the 3 most important things I should know going in, and what question should I be prepared to answer?"
Add: "Based on what I've described about our current AI state, what are 2–3 things organizations at this stage most commonly get wrong? Be direct."
If any of these fail, add to your prompt: "Your response was too general. Give me specific examples with dates, organizations, and measurable outcomes. If you don't have them, tell me that directly."
Most leaders default to lower-quality sources without realizing it. Use this to calibrate where your inputs are coming from and what they're actually good for.
An AI assistant is most useful for synthesizing steps 2–5. It can also help you figure out who to call for step 6.