How to Build a Competitor Analyst AI Agent: Insights from The Automated CMO
- Kisha Velazquez
- Mar 30
- 5 min read
Updated: Apr 13
This post is inspired by a workshop session from Acadium Plus, featuring AI marketing consultant Adamma Ihemeson and hosted by Kisha Velazquez.
What's in this Post:
With the initials AI, Adamma Ihemeson, also known as The Automated CMO, was destined to be the first product marketing hire at an AI ecosystem intelligence startup. Fast forward four years, now Adamma has built 30+ custom prompts for launching marketing campaigns and teaches other overwhelmed marketers and busy solopreneurs how to create low-code marketing engines.
Recently, I hosted a webinar with Adamma to show the Acadium Plus community how to build their own competitor analyst AI agent using Perplexity and MindStudio. As a content marketer who has worked with many marketing teams-of-one, I was blown away by the potential these tools offer.
Here are some of the highlights from our session.
Understanding AI Fundamentals for Marketers
Before diving into tools, Adamma broke down some essential AI terms that marketers should know:
Prompt Engineering: The process of crafting effective inputs to get your desired outputs from AI models like ChatGPT or Claude
Data Retrieval: How AI pulls real-time or historical information from external sources
Fine Tuning: Customizing AI models with specific data to improve performance for particular tasks
Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG): An advanced framework that combines information retrieval with text generation
Workflow Automation: Series of automated AI-driven actions designed to streamline processes
Adamma also clarified the difference between LLMs or AI models and AI Agents.
The Evolution of AI Marketing Skills
Adamma highlighted how marketers' AI skills typically evolve:
Learning how to be a good prompter
Learning how to create systems with AI
Building and monitoring AI agents
As she noted, "AI being able to actually systematize and automate some of those processes... not only buys you back time, but it also allows you to have more time to dedicate to the things that you actually enjoy about your work."
AI for Competitive Research: The Time-Saving Advantage
Adamma cited that marketers using AI for competitive research save an average of 50-70% of their time compared to manual methods.
Key marketing applications for AI Agents include:
Competitive Website Analysis: Scraping information from competitor URLs
Social Media Monitoring: Getting alerts about competitor activities
Market Trend Reports: Generating insights from industry data
Sentiment Analysis: Understanding how people feel about competitor brands
Competitor Ad Tracking: Monitoring advertising performance
"With AI, you can now scrape from different sources to understand exactly how people feel about a competitor brand."
Adamma walked through the benefits of Perplexity and MindStudio, showing exactly how she transforms one-off prompts into powerful AI workflows.
Perplexity: AI-Powered Search Engine
Perplexity combines real-time web retrieval with AI-generated insights. Benefits include:
Real-time insights: Access to the latest market trends and competitor updates
Verified sources: Provides citations, unlike some other AI tools
Strategic thinking: Helps analyze complex competitive landscapes
Competitive benchmarking: Quickly compares your brand against competitors
MindStudio: No-Code AI Agent Builder
MindStudio allows users to build custom AI models and agents without programming skills:
No-code development: Design and deploy AI models for competitor research without coding
Integration capabilities: Connect to APIs, CRM systems, and data visualization tools
Automated data collection: Scrape real-time competitor insights on pricing, products, and sentiment
Customizable agents: Create specialized AI agents for specific analysis tasks
How to Build a Competitor Analyst AI Agent Using MindStudio
Expert Prompt Engineering: The Framework
One of the most valuable insights Adamma shared was her approach to prompt engineering. Her framework follows:
Define the role: Tell the AI what expert role to assume (e.g., "Act as a competitive analyst with 10 years of experience")
Specify expertise areas: Add 2-3 specializations (e.g., "with expertise in sentiment analysis, newsletter generation, and go-to-market strategy")
State the goal: Clearly articulate what outcome you want
This structured approach helps get more precise, useful results from AI tools.
Beyond Competitor Analysis: Additional Use Cases
Adamma also touched on other powerful applications:
Lead Generation and Scoring
AI agents can automate the lead journey by:
Validating customer personas
Understanding where prospects are in their journey
Automating lead scoring by analyzing prospects' digital footprints
Directing leads to appropriate resources based on their needs
AI Operators vs. AI Creators
Adamma distinguished between two approaches to AI:
AI Operators: People incorporating AI into existing business functions like sales, marketing, or HR
AI Creators: Those building new AI-powered products and tools
For marketers looking to create products with AI (like journals, workbooks, or custom tools), she recommended resources like Lovable, Bolt, and v0.dev.
Why Startup Founders Should Bet on AI
For startup founders and marketers, these AI tools level the playing field. As noted during the webinar, platforms that offer functionality like lead scoring can be pricey.
MindStudio and similar tools allow you to:
Build enterprise-level analysis capabilities on a budget
Focus your limited time on high-impact activities
Make data-driven decisions without a large team
Automate repetitive tasks to focus on creativity and strategy
Getting Started with Your Own AI Agent
Ready to build your first competitive analyst AI agent? Here's a simplified approach:
Choose your tool: Begin with Perplexity for research or MindStudio for building agents
Define your competitive intelligence goals: What specific insights do you need?
Structure your prompts: Use Adamma's framework (role + expertise + goal)
Test and refine: Continuously improve your prompts or agents based on results
Integrate insights: Use the intelligence gathered to inform your marketing strategy
As Adamma explained, the key is identifying which tasks you're comfortable delegating to AI so you can focus on what you do best.
"What's the reason that you even fell in love with marketing in the first place, and what are the things that you don't want to touch within marketing that you can actually delegate when it comes to AI?"
By building your own AI agents, you're not just saving time—you're expanding your capabilities and deepening your strategic insights in ways that weren't possible.
Are you using AI for your marketing efforts? What tasks would you like to automate with an AI agent?
Let's discuss how I can help you create strategic content for your business using AI.
