Running customer and competitive analysis through AI surveys gives you direct insights into how your customers perceive you versus competitors.
Traditional competitive analysis often misses the customer's voice, but conversational surveys capture authentic perceptions and preferences that forms and market reports can't.
Let's walk through how to use AI-powered survey tools to generate, deploy, and analyze competitive perception surveys—turning opinion into actionable strategy.
Generate targeted competitive perception surveys with AI
The AI survey generator understands the nuances of customer and competitive analysis, so you’re never starting with a blank slate. These AI tools generate sophisticated surveys within minutes, thanks to expert prompts, context-aware logic, and smart follow-ups that keep each answer meaningful.
For instance, Quantilope's AI co-pilot demonstrates how generative AI research solutions can suggest powerful questions and reduce survey build time by over 50% compared to manual methods. This speeds up your workflow without sacrificing survey quality or depth. [1]
Here are three proven AI survey prompt examples for competitive analysis:
Feature comparison: This reveals the functional gaps between your offer and key rivals, so you can prioritize smartly.
Compare our product’s features with those of [Competitor X] to identify any feature gaps.
Pricing perception: Use to uncover how your price tag and overall value stack up in real buyer eyes.
Assess how customers perceive our pricing relative to [Competitor Y] to understand price sensitivity and value perception.
Brand positioning: Vital for finding out if your differentiation and messaging cut through.
Determine how customers categorize our brand versus [Competitor Z] to uncover positioning insights.
The AI survey builder doesn’t just create questions—it includes intelligent follow-up logic that digs deeper into customer rationale whenever a competitor or critical theme is mentioned. You’ll capture not just what customers think, but also why they think it.
Deploy conversational surveys that feel like customer interviews
When your survey is ready, share it with the right audience using Conversational Survey Pages—a landing page link that delivers your survey wherever your customers are. There’s no friction or clunky forms; your survey unfolds as a conversation, encouraging honesty and more nuanced responses.
This conversational approach isn’t just friendlier; it leads to richer, more actionable insights. According to research, AI survey formats like one-question-at-a-time interfaces improve response quality and completion rates compared to static web forms. [2]
Automatic probing: When respondents reference competitors, AI-powered follow-ups immediately ask natural clarifiers on the spot—unlocking motivations, specifics, and stories that are otherwise missed.
Global insights: Multilingual support means you can collect and compare competitive perception data globally, letting diverse customers answer in their own language. You’ll see how perceptions shift by market, not just in your home turf.
Because this feels like chatting, not filling out a form, people naturally write more—and you get higher response rates from even stubborn segments.
Extract competitive intelligence through AI analysis
Once responses start coming in, you don’t just wade through raw data. Instead, AI-powered survey analysis summarizes, distills, and lets you interact with results just like chatting with a research analyst.
AI platforms—like Specific—can instantly surface key competitive themes, recommend research prompts, and even visualize sentiment differences between you and rivals. These tools reduce analysis time from days to minutes while keeping context intact. [3]
Here are some powerful prompts you can use to unlock deep competitive insight:
Positioning gaps: Use this to pinpoint how you truly stand out—or where you’re blended in.
Show me how customers describe our brand compared to competitors. What unique positioning gaps or differentiation opportunities appear?
Feature priorities: Identify which product features drive your competitive advantage, and which are table stakes.
Based on responses, which product features are most important to customers, and how do we perform versus [Competitor Y]?
Price sensitivity analysis: Reveal if price objections are real or just a symptom.
Analyze survey feedback to show how price influences purchase decisions compared to alternatives in our space.
Win/loss reasons: Directly examine why deals are lost or won—vital for sales and product strategy.
What are the main reasons customers selected us over [Competitor Z], and why did some switch to them instead?
You’re not limited to just one line of inquiry. With multiple simultaneous analysis threads, you (and your team) can run detailed explorations by persona, market, feature set, and more—all at once, within the same dataset.
Build continuous competitive intelligence with AI surveys
Competitive analysis isn’t a box to check once a year. The market moves, competitors change, and customer perceptions evolve. Instead, make your competitive intelligence an ongoing habit: by running quarterly perception surveys, you’ll track real movement—not just point-in-time guesses.
Aspect | One-time Analysis | Continuous Monitoring |
|---|---|---|
Frequency | Once | Quarterly |
Insight Depth | Limited | Comprehensive |
Responsiveness | Delayed | Immediate |
Strategic Adaptation | Infrequent | Agile |
If your competitors launch new products or change go-to-market, update your competitive analysis survey instantly with the AI survey editor. You simply describe the changes you want in natural language, and the survey updates in real time.
Contextual timing: In-product surveys are uniquely powerful for competitive analysis. Drop them at critical moments—like after a trial, or when users are comparing features. You’ll catch authentic perceptions when they matter most, right inside your app. Find out more about the In-Product Conversational Survey option.
This approach shifts your strategy from guesswork to customer-driven competitive insight: you’ll detect shifts first, respond faster, and build what truly matters.
Start uncovering your competitive advantage
There's no faster way to turn competitive analysis into actionable insights than by leveraging AI-powered customer perception surveys. Every day you delay means another opportunity ceded to competitors—create your own survey and start winning the battle for customer mindshare.