Why Research Is Where Agents Shine
Research is one of the most valuable things a professional can do, and also one of the most tedious. The actual insight, the "aha" moment that changes your strategy, usually takes five minutes. But getting to that moment can take hours of searching, reading, cross-referencing, and organizing.
AI agents flip this equation. They handle the gathering and organizing so you can focus on the interpreting and deciding. Claude Cowork is particularly well suited for research because it combines built-in web search with the ability to read and analyze your local files, all in the same session.
This guide covers 10 practical research workflows you can run with this AI agent today. Each includes a paste-ready prompt and an explanation of what to expect.
For a broader overview of all agent use cases, check out our complete guide to AI agent use cases.
What You Need Before Starting
This guide uses Claude Cowork. If you have not set it up yet, start with our setup guide. Research prompts require minimal setup:
- Web research: Cowork has built-in web search. No connectors needed. It can find and synthesize information from across the internet.
- File-based analysis: Grant Cowork access to the folder containing your spreadsheets, reports, or data files when starting a session. It can read .xlsx, .csv, .pdf, .docx, and most common file formats.
- Output: Cowork creates finished documents (.docx, .xlsx, .pdf) directly in your granted folder. No copy-pasting required.
1. Market Research and Industry Analysis
Understanding your market landscape is critical for strategic decisions, but assembling a comprehensive picture from scattered sources takes a full day or more. Cowork can build the foundation in minutes.
"I need to understand the current state of the electric vehicle charging infrastructure market in the United States. Research the major players and their approximate market share, recent product launches or partnerships from the past six months, growth projections through 2030, and any regulatory changes or government incentives that could affect the market. Compile your findings into a briefing document with an executive summary at the top, detailed sections for each topic, and a list of all sources you used. Save it as a document in my working folder."
The agent searches the web, synthesizes what it finds, and delivers a formatted briefing. It is not a replacement for deep domain expertise, but it gives you a strong starting point and saves you the hours of initial research.
2. Financial Data Analysis and Reporting
Turning raw numbers into strategic insights is essential but time-consuming work. Cowork can process your spreadsheets, identify patterns, and create executive-ready summaries.
"I have our Q4 sales data in the spreadsheet called 'Q4_Sales_2025.xlsx' in this folder. Analyze our performance by product line, by region, and by customer segment. Compare the results to Q3 (in 'Q3_Sales_2025.xlsx') and to Q4 of the previous year (in 'Q4_Sales_2024.xlsx'). Identify the top three positive trends and the top three concerning trends. Create an executive summary document with charts showing the key comparisons, along with a detailed appendix explaining your methodology and the specific numbers behind each trend."
Cowork reads the spreadsheets, runs the comparisons, and produces a finished report with visualizations. You review the strategic insights rather than spending hours building pivot tables.
3. Competitive Intelligence Gathering
Keeping tabs on competitors is essential but rarely urgent, which means it usually gets deprioritized until something forces your hand. An agent makes this easy to do regularly.
"Research our three main competitors: Acme Corp, TechStart Inc, and GlobalSolutions. For each one, find: their most recent product announcements or feature releases, any leadership changes in the past six months, recent press coverage or notable blog posts, and any publicly available information about their pricing, positioning, or target market. Organize everything into a comparison matrix with a row for each competitor and columns for each category. Add a final section highlighting areas where we might be at a competitive disadvantage and areas where we appear to have an edge."
Run this monthly with the AI agent and you will always have a current picture of your competitive landscape. The comparison matrix format makes it easy to spot changes over time.
4. Due Diligence Research
Before entering any significant business relationship, you need to know who you are dealing with. Cowork can assemble a comprehensive background check from publicly available information.
"We are considering partnering with a company called Innovate Labs for our data analytics platform. Conduct due diligence research on them. Find information about: when they were founded, who is on their leadership team and their backgrounds, their funding history and investors, notable clients or case studies they have published, any news coverage (positive or negative), and any red flags such as lawsuits, regulatory actions, or critical reviews. Compile a due diligence summary with your findings organized by category. Include a 'Confidence Level' note for each section indicating how much reliable information you were able to find. Flag any areas where public information was limited."
The confidence level notes are particularly valuable because they tell you where you might need to dig deeper through direct conversations or paid research services.
5. Internal Data Consolidation
When insights are scattered across multiple files and formats, consolidation becomes a project in itself. Cowork excels at pulling everything together into a single coherent view.
"I need to compile all of our customer feedback from the past quarter. I have three sources: survey responses in 'Customer_Survey_Q4.xlsx', support ticket summaries in 'Support_Tickets_Q4.docx', and notes from customer calls in 'Customer_Call_Notes.docx'. Read all three files and consolidate the feedback. Identify the top recurring themes across all sources. Create a report that categorizes issues by severity (critical, high, medium, low) and frequency (how many times each theme appeared). Include specific direct quotes that illustrate each main pain point. End with a 'Recommended Actions' section listing the top five things we should address first, based on the data."
This is one of Cowork's strongest use cases because it reads multiple file formats natively and can cross-reference information across sources that would take you hours to connect manually.
6. Trend Analysis and Forecasting
Understanding where your industry is headed helps you make better long-term decisions. Cowork can research emerging trends and synthesize them into a forward-looking briefing.
"Research the top emerging trends in the SaaS industry for 2026 and beyond. Focus on: major shifts in pricing models, the impact of AI on product development and customer expectations, changes in enterprise buying behavior, and any notable predictions from industry analysts or respected thought leaders. For each trend you identify, explain what it means, provide evidence or examples, and assess how it might affect a mid-size B2B SaaS company. Create a trends briefing document organized from most impactful to least impactful. Include your sources."
This type of research brief is valuable for strategic planning sessions, board presentations, or simply staying informed about the direction of your industry.
7. Survey and Feedback Analysis
Processing survey results manually is one of the most tedious forms of data analysis. Cowork can read the raw data, identify patterns, and surface the insights that matter.
"I have the results of our annual employee engagement survey in 'Employee_Survey_2026.xlsx'. The spreadsheet contains responses to 25 questions across six categories: leadership, compensation, growth opportunities, work-life balance, team collaboration, and company culture. Each question uses a 1-5 scale, and there are also open-ended text responses. Analyze the quantitative scores by category and identify which areas scored highest and lowest. Then analyze the open-ended responses and identify the top themes in what employees are saying. Create a report with: an overall engagement score, category-by-category breakdown with scores and commentary, the most common positive themes, the most common concerns, and recommended focus areas for leadership. Include relevant direct quotes (anonymized) to illustrate key points."
This turns a raw spreadsheet of hundreds of responses into an actionable brief that leadership can use immediately for decision-making.
8. Literature and Report Review
When you need to get up to speed on a topic quickly, reading through multiple long reports is not always feasible. Cowork can read them for you and extract the essentials.
"I have five industry reports in this folder (all PDF files). I need to prepare for a strategy meeting tomorrow and do not have time to read all of them. For each report, provide: the title and publisher, the three most important findings or recommendations, any data points that are directly relevant to our market segment (enterprise healthcare technology), and any conclusions that contradict each other across reports. Then create a synthesis document that pulls together the common themes and highlights where the reports agree and where they diverge. Flag the two or three insights that would be most valuable to bring up in tomorrow's meeting."
This is the difference between walking into a meeting having skimmed a few pages and walking in with a synthesized understanding of five different perspectives on the same topic.
9. Pricing and Cost Analysis
Evaluating pricing, whether for your own products or for vendors you are considering, requires gathering scattered data points and making meaningful comparisons.
"I am evaluating project management tools for our team of 25 people. Research the current pricing for these five options: Asana, Monday.com, ClickUp, Notion, and Linear. For each tool, find: the plan tier that would be most appropriate for a 25-person team, the per-user monthly cost (both monthly and annual billing), what features are included at that tier versus what costs extra, and any notable limitations or restrictions. Create a comparison spreadsheet with a row for each tool and columns for each data point. Add a final column with your assessment of the best value based on features per dollar. Also note any tools that offer free trials or pilot programs."
Cowork uses its web search to find current pricing from each provider's website and organizes it into a decision-ready format. This is a task that might take you two hours of tab-switching and note-taking, compressed into minutes.
10. SWOT Analysis Generation
A SWOT analysis is one of the most common strategic frameworks, but doing it well requires pulling together information from multiple internal and external sources.
"Help me create a comprehensive SWOT analysis for our company's position in the cloud security market. For Strengths and Weaknesses, use the internal data I have provided: our product comparison document, last quarter's sales report, and our customer feedback summary (all in this folder). For Opportunities and Threats, research the current state of the cloud security market, including competitor moves, regulatory changes, emerging technologies, and market growth projections. Create the SWOT analysis as a professional document with: a 2x2 matrix overview, then a detailed section for each quadrant with specific evidence and data points supporting each item. End with a 'Strategic Implications' section that connects the four quadrants into three to five actionable recommendations."
This combines internal file analysis with external web research in a single prompt, which is exactly the kind of multi-source synthesis that would normally take a full afternoon of work.
Tips for Getting the Most Out of Research Automation
Always verify critical data points. Any AI agent cites its sources, so check the most important numbers and claims before including them in presentations or decisions. Web-sourced data should be treated as a strong starting point, not a final answer.
Be specific about your context. The more context you give the AI agent about your industry, company size, and role, the more relevant its research will be. A prompt that says "research AI trends" will give you generic results. A prompt that says "research AI trends relevant to a 50-person logistics company in the Midwest" will give you actionable insights.
Request source documentation. Always ask Cowork to list its sources. This lets you dive deeper into any area and also helps you assess the quality of the information.
Save and build on previous research. Keep your research outputs in organized folders. Future prompts can reference past analyses: "Compare this quarter's competitive landscape to the analysis you created last month."
