market-research

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by affaan-m · Updated Apr 16, 2026

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Conduct market research, competitive analysis, investor due diligence, and industry intelligence with source attribution and decision-oriented summaries. Use when the user wants market sizing, competitor comparisons, fund research, technology scans, or research that informs business decisions.

market-researchcompetitive-analysisdue-diligencemarket-sizingindustry-intelligencedecision-support

See It In Action

1 turns·claude

The project codebase is in your current working directory. Explore the files to understand the code before making changes. need a quick competitor brief before roadmap review today — compare enterprise AI onboarding assistants, what they offer, pricing, traction, risks, and tell me if we should build now

Here's your brief:

Enterprise AI Onboarding Assistants — Competitor Brief

Prepared for roadmap review | April 9, 2026

Executive Summary

The enterprise AI onboarding assistant space is consolidating fast. The two pure-play leaders (Moveworks, Espressive) have both been acquired in the last 12 months, leaving a fragmented field of HR-suite incumbents adding AI features and smaller startups that haven't scaled. There's a real window to build a focused product — but the window is narrowing as ServiceNow and platform players absorb the standalone tools.

Key Competitors

Player	What They Do	Target	Traction	Status
Moveworks	Cross-department AI assistant (IT, HR, finance). Agentic reasoning engine, omnichannel, multilingual.	Large enterprise (500+ employees)	$100M ARR (Sep 2024), 12 major customers, $2.1B valuation	Acquired by ServiceNow (Mar 2025)
Espressive Barista	Employee self-service virtual agent. Employee Language Cloud NLP. 80-85% adoption rates, 50-70% ticket deflection.	Mid-to-large enterprise IT/HR	$53M total funding. Backed by Insight Partners, General Catalyst	Acquired by Resolve (Sep 2025)
Leena AI	HR-focused conversational AI. Onboarding workflows, policy support, employee engagement.	Mid-enterprise HR teams	$15.8M revenue, 100 customers (2024). $40M raised (Series B)	Independent — potential target
Workday AI	AI/ML within HCM suite — learning suggestions, onboarding task guidance	Existing Workday customers	Massive install base, but AI is a feature, not a product	Platform play
Rippling	IT/systems onboarding automation — auto-provisions apps, devices, workflows	SMB to mid-market	Fast-growing, but onboarding is one module among many	Platform play
BambooHR	Basic AI for data entry and task management in onboarding	SMB	Large SMB base, AI capabilities still emerging	Platform play

Pricing Landscape

Tier	Range	Notes
SMB tools (BambooHR, Rippling)	$8-25/employee/month	Onboarding is bundled into broader HR/IT suite
Mid-market AI assistants (Leena AI)	~$3-5/employee/month (est.)	$15.8M rev / 100 customers suggests ~$158K ACV
Enterprise platforms (Moveworks)	$50K-200K implementation + subscription	$100M ARR / 12 customers = ~$8M ACV. Custom pricing only
General AI agent subscriptions	$1,200-5,000/month	For generic AI assistant platforms not specialized in onboarding

Source: Most enterprise vendors don't publish pricing. Estimates derived from revenue/customer ratios and industry benchmarks.

Traction Signals

Market pull is real:

51% of companies with 50-99 employees already use AI in onboarding (Enboarder)
Companies report $18K/year savings, 82% better retention, 40% faster ramp (InFeedo)
Gartner: 40% of enterprise apps will feature AI agents by end of 2026, up from <5% in 2025
Enterprise AI market: ~$115B in 2026, growing at 19% CAGR (Mordor Intelligence)

Funding climate: AI startups attract 33% of total VC, seed-stage AI companies command 42% valuation premium (Qubit Capital)

Risks & Gaps

Risks if you build

Platform gravity. ServiceNow (with Moveworks) and Workday are adding native AI onboarding. Competing with bundled features in platforms customers already own is hard.
Implementation drag. Moveworks took 8-16 weeks and $50-200K to deploy. Enterprise onboarding AI requires deep HRIS/ITSM integrations — this is not a quick ship.
Consolidation wave. Both pure-play leaders got acquired in the last year. Acquirers may use them as loss leaders, compressing margins for independents.

Gaps you could exploit

No one owns the "first 90 days" end-to-end. Moveworks does tickets, Leena does HR Q&A, Rippling does device provisioning — no one stitches the full new-hire journey into one agent.
Mid-market is underserved. Moveworks/ServiceNow is enterprise-only ($8M ACV). BambooHR AI is basic. The 200-2000 employee segment has no great dedicated option.
Onboarding-specific intelligence is weak. Current tools are generic employee assistants with onboarding as one workflow. A product built around time-to-productivity metrics, role-specific ramp plans, and manager coaching signals would be differentiated.
Leena AI is the only independent pure-play left at $15.8M revenue — acquirable or beatable.

Recommendation: Build, but scope tightly

Factor	Assessment
Market timing	Favorable. Pure-play leaders just got absorbed into platforms. 12-18 month window before ServiceNow/Workday fully integrate their acquisitions.
Differentiation available	Yes. End-to-end "first 90 days" agent that combines IT provisioning + HR workflows + learning paths + manager nudges doesn't exist today.
Defensibility risk	Medium. Platform bundling is the main threat. Mitigate by going deep on onboarding-specific outcomes (time-to-productivity, ramp analytics) that horizontal players won't prioritize.
Target segment	Mid-market (200-2000 employees). Avoid competing with ServiceNow in the enterprise. This segment has budget, pain, and no great option.
Build cost	Moderate. Core agent + 3-4 HRIS integrations (Workday, BambooHR, Rippling, ADP) for V1. The integration work is the hard part, not the AI.

Bottom line: The consolidation of Moveworks and Espressive has created a gap. If you can ship a focused mid-market product in 2-3 quarters that owns the full onboarding journey (not just ticket deflection), you have a real window. Waiting 6+ months risks letting ServiceNow and Workday close the gap with integrated features.

What to decide today: Commit to a V1 scoped to 2 HRIS integrations and the "first 90 days" workflow. Don't try to be a general employee assistant — that's where the acquired players already lost their independence.

Sources

Claude Sonnet 4.6

Permissions

Scope	Description
network:outbound

SKILL.md

Market Research

Produce research that supports decisions, not research theater.

When to Activate

researching a market, category, company, investor, or technology trend
building TAM/SAM/SOM estimates
comparing competitors or adjacent products
preparing investor dossiers before outreach
pressure-testing a thesis before building, funding, or entering a market

Research Standards

Every important claim needs a source.
Prefer recent data and call out stale data.
Include contrarian evidence and downside cases.
Translate findings into a decision, not just a summary.
Separate fact, inference, and recommendation clearly.

Common Research Modes

Investor / Fund Diligence

Collect:

fund size, stage, and typical check size
relevant portfolio companies
public thesis and recent activity
reasons the fund is or is not a fit
any obvious red flags or mismatches

Competitive Analysis

Collect:

product reality, not marketing copy
funding and investor history if public
traction metrics if public
distribution and pricing clues
strengths, weaknesses, and positioning gaps

Market Sizing

Use:

top-down estimates from reports or public datasets
bottom-up sanity checks from realistic customer acquisition assumptions
explicit assumptions for every leap in logic

Technology / Vendor Research

Collect:

how it works
trade-offs and adoption signals
integration complexity
lock-in, security, compliance, and operational risk

Output Format

Default structure:

executive summary
key findings
implications
risks and caveats
recommendation
sources

Quality Gate

Before delivering:

all numbers are sourced or labeled as estimates
old data is flagged
the recommendation follows from the evidence
risks and counterarguments are included
the output makes a decision easier

FAQ

What does market-research do?

When should I use market-research?

Use it when you need a repeatable workflow that produces text response.

What does market-research output?

In the evaluated run it produced text response.

How do I install or invoke market-research?

npx skills add https://github.com/affaan-m/everything-claude-code --skill market-research

Which agents does market-research support?

Claude Code

What tools, channels, or permissions does market-research need?

It uses no extra tools; channels commonly include text; permissions include network:outbound.

Is market-research safe to install?

Static analysis marked this skill as low risk; review side effects and permissions before enabling it.

How is market-research different from an MCP or plugin?

A skill packages instructions and workflow conventions; tools, MCP servers, and plugins are dependencies the skill may call during execution.

Does market-research outperform not using a skill?

About market-research

When to use market-research

You need a sourced competitive landscape or company comparison before making a product or go-to-market decision. You want a TAM/SAM/SOM estimate with explicit assumptions and sanity checks. You are evaluating investors, vendors, or technology categories and need a concise diligence brief.

When market-research is not the right choice

You need primary research such as surveys, interviews, or proprietary paid-database access. You need transactional actions like outreach, CRM updates, or automated report publishing.

What it produces

Produces text response.

Install

npx skills add https://github.com/affaan-m/everything-claude-code --skill market-research

Invoke: Ask Claude Code to use market-research for the task.