Day 24 of 28 · AI Challenge
Market Research with AI
⏱ 7 min
📊 Beginner
Big companies spend $20,000–$100,000 on market research. They hire consulting firms, run focus groups, and commission reports that take months to produce.
You're going to do something shockingly similar in an afternoon — for free.
Today you'll learn how to use AI for competitor analysis, customer personas, market sizing, and finding gaps that others miss. This isn't guessing. It's structured research that gives you a real edge.
Competitor analysis in 30 minutes
Before you sell anything — a service, a product, a course — you need to know who else is selling it and how you're different.
Here's the process:
Step 1: Identify 5–10 competitors. AI can help you find them by searching for businesses in your niche.
Step 2: Analyze their positioning. What do they promise? Who do they target? What do they charge?
Step 3: Find the gaps. Where are customers complaining? What's missing? What could be better?
Step 4: Position yourself in the gap. Don't compete head-on with established players. Find the angle they're ignoring.
This used to require days of manual research. With AI, you can build a comprehensive competitor analysis in a single focused session.
Knowledge Check
What's the primary goal of competitor analysis?
A
To copy what successful competitors are doing
B
To discourage yourself from entering a crowded market
C
To prove your idea is completely unique
D
To find gaps and opportunities — what competitors miss, where customers are underserved
Competitor analysis isn't about copying or being intimidated. It's about understanding the landscape so you can find your unique angle. The best opportunities often exist in the spaces between what competitors offer — the features they lack, the audiences they ignore, the price points they miss.
I want to start an AI-powered resume writing service for tech professionals. Help me analyze the competitive landscape. Who are the main players, what do they charge, and where are the gaps?
Here's your competitor analysis:
**Major competitors:**
1. **TopResume** — Largest player. $149–$349 per resume. Turnaround: 1–2 weeks. Uses human writers. Reviews are mixed — many complaints about generic, template-driven results.
2. **ZipJob** — $139–$299. Similar model to TopResume. Includes ATS optimization. Better reviews but still slow turnaround.
3. **Fiverr resume writers** — $50–$200. Highly variable quality. Fast turnaround but inconsistent. Many aren't tech-specialized.
4. **Teal (AI tool)** — Free/$29 month. Self-service AI resume builder. Good for DIY users but no human oversight.
5. **Rezi** — $29/month AI tool. Auto-formats and suggests content. No personalized feedback.
**Pricing landscape:**
- Budget (self-service AI tools): $0–$29/month
- Mid-range (human writers): $149–$349 one-time
- Premium (executive services): $500–$1,500
**Gaps I see:**
🔴 **Speed** — Human services take 1–2 weeks. Tech professionals switching jobs need results in 24–48 hours.
🔴 **Tech specialization** — Most services are generalist. They don't know the difference between a React developer resume and a data engineer resume.
🔴 **The middle ground** — There's nothing between cheap AI tools ($29) and expensive human writers ($300+). A $99–$149 AI-powered service with human review fills this gap perfectly.
🔴 **Ongoing support** — Everyone sells a one-time resume. Nobody offers a subscription for continuous optimization as you apply to different roles.
**Your positioning opportunity:**
"AI-powered tech resumes, delivered in 48 hours, with human review — $129. Tailored to your specific tech stack and target companies."
This is incredible. Now help me understand who my ideal customer actually is.
**Your ideal customer persona:**
**Name:** "Alex" — Mid-level tech professional
**Age:** 27–38
**Role:** Software engineer, data analyst, product manager, or UX designer
**Income:** $85,000–$150,000
**Situation:** Employed but actively looking, or recently laid off
**Pain points:**
- Knows their resume doesn't reflect their actual skills
- Hates writing about themselves
- Worried about getting past ATS filters
- Doesn't want to wait 2 weeks for a generic resume
- Willing to pay for speed and quality but not $500+
**Where they hang out:**
- LinkedIn, Reddit (r/cscareerquestions, r/resumes)
- Blind (anonymous tech employee app)
- Tech Slack communities and Discord servers
**What triggers them to buy:**
- Getting rejected from a role they were qualified for
- Seeing a coworker land a better job
- A layoff announcement at their company
This person will pay $129 without blinking if you can deliver in 48 hours with results tailored to tech roles.
↻ Replay conversation
Building customer personas that actually work
A customer persona isn't a creative writing exercise. It's a practical tool that tells you who to talk to, what to say, and where to find them.
A useful persona answers these questions:
Who are they? Demographics, job title, income level.
What's their problem? Not a vague frustration — a specific pain point they'd pay to solve.
What have they tried? Knowing their past attempts tells you what they're comparing you to.
Where do they gather? Online communities, social platforms, events, publications.
What triggers a purchase? The specific moment when they go from "I should fix this" to "I'm buying a solution right now."
AI is remarkably good at building these personas because it's been trained on millions of discussions, reviews, and customer stories. It can synthesize patterns that would take you weeks to uncover manually.
Knowledge Check
What makes a customer persona actually useful?
A
It tells you where to find your customers, what triggers them to buy, and what language they use
B
It includes every possible demographic detail
C
It has a creative name and a stock photo
D
It covers as many different customer types as possible
A persona is a targeting tool, not a character sketch. The most useful information is actionable: where do these people hang out online? What words do they use to describe their problem? What moment pushes them from thinking to buying? That's what helps you sell.
Market sizing — is this worth your time?
Market sizing sounds intimidating, but the core question is simple: are there enough people willing to pay for this?
Here's a quick framework:
TAM (Total Addressable Market) — Everyone who could potentially buy your product. For a tech resume service: all tech professionals who might need a resume (millions).
SAM (Serviceable Addressable Market) — The segment you can realistically reach. For you: mid-level tech professionals in English-speaking countries actively job hunting (hundreds of thousands).
SOM (Serviceable Obtainable Market) — The customers you can realistically get in year one. For you: maybe 200–500 clients through organic marketing and word of mouth.
The math: 300 clients x $129 = $38,700 in year one. Not bad for a side project. And that's a conservative estimate.
You don't need a massive market. You need a market big enough for your goals.
Knowledge Check
For a side project, which market metric matters most?
A
TAM — the total number of possible customers worldwide
B
SOM — the realistic number of customers you can actually acquire in the next 12 months
C
The number of competitors in the space
D
SAM — the total reachable market in your region
Grand market numbers are interesting but not actionable. What matters for a side project is: can you realistically acquire enough paying customers to meet your income goals? If you need 200 customers at $100 each to make $20,000, and you can reach 10,000 potential buyers — that's very doable.
Finding gaps that competitors miss
The most profitable opportunities aren't in crowded markets — they're in the spaces between what existing players offer.
Here's how to find them using AI:
Mine review sites. Ask AI to analyze 1-star and 2-star reviews of your competitors on G2, Trustpilot, or Reddit. The complaints are a roadmap of unmet needs.
Study pricing gaps. If everyone charges $300+ or $30 and under, the $99–$149 range is wide open. Price gaps often signal opportunity gaps.
Look at underserved segments. Most businesses target the biggest audience. The niches they ignore — specific industries, career stages, company sizes — are often eager for a solution built just for them.
Check for slow incumbents. If the established players look like their websites haven't been updated since 2018, they're vulnerable. Speed, modern design, and a better experience can win even against bigger brands.
Final Check
You've identified a market where the top 3 competitors all have 3-star average ratings with frequent complaints about slow delivery and generic results. What does this tell you?
A
The market is bad and you should avoid it
B
There's a clear opportunity to win by being faster and more personalized — the demand exists but current solutions aren't meeting expectations
C
Customers in this space are impossible to please
D
You need to build something completely different from what they offer
Low ratings with consistent complaints are one of the strongest market signals you can find. It means customers want this type of service and are actively paying for it — but nobody's doing it well enough. If you can solve those specific pain points (slow, generic), you have a compelling advantage from day one.
🔍
Day 24 Complete
"Good research beats good guessing. AI gives you the research capabilities of a consulting firm — for free."
Tomorrow — Day 25
Pricing Your AI Services
Tomorrow you'll learn the art of pricing — charge what you're worth, not what you think people will pay.