Analyst Relations in 2024: What’s on the horizon?

We’re now firmly in the New Year, when 2024 plans start to move into the implementation phase and when we might sometimes get lost in the ‘day to day’ activity. Your AR strategy and plans for 2024 are well formulated but are there any trends that you need to be mindful of this year? We look at some of the major changes that will influence our work as AR professional over the next 12 months.

AI and AR partnership continues to grow

AI has started to change literally every facet of both the tech and communications sectors so there’s no surprise it’s beginning to have an impact on Analyst Relations too.

AI is affecting the way analysts conduct their daily jobs and the way analyst firms will operate in the future.

I’ve recently listened to an interesting webinar by The Skills Connection which notes that AI will remove lots of the manual work currently done by analysts and speed up both research and content production (e.g. report writing). It will also automate repetitive interactions, thereby further optimising the processes that shape analysts’ work.

As well as the jobs of analysts, AI is also re-shaping the services offered by analyst firms. According to The Skills Connection, different subscription levels may offer access to intelligence provided by different sources – this could be an analyst chatbot, an analyst avatar and, of course, an analyst human – the latter will come at a premium cost that is set to increase.

“Analyst firms that don’t have disruptive, AI-driven content operations are going to be really struggling to survive,” comments Daniel Newman of Futurum Group.

Finally, AI is becoming integral to the work of AR practitioners too. As AI scours an ever-growing volume of data and content, the volume of your company’s (or client’s) content and mentions will need to increase too. Put simply, your communication strategy will need to evolve and very clearly articulate key USPs across as many formats and platforms as possible.

So close yet so far?

AR professionals and analysts alike love in-person events and there’s no doubt that the frequency of travel and in-person meetings and events has picked up again after the Covid pandemic. However, it’s unlikely we’ll see it reach pre-Covid levels again.

Rising costs and the growing importance of lower carbon footprint mean that every travel arrangement is carefully considered, and every invitation accepted only if it really adds value.

This is where the ‘R’ in analyst relations really plays an important role. AR professionals need to stay very close to their key analysts and nurture relationships in meaningful ways. One example is staying close to your analysts’ travel plans and (where appropriate) suggest catch-ups and interactions to maintain occasional in-person engagements that really DO help build strong long-term relationships.

Peer review platforms continue to gather pace

Customer testimonials, case studies and other types of customer endorsements have always been at the heart of an excellent AR programme. As analysts tend to increasingly rely on end user reviews, peer review platforms have taken the importance of customer endorsements to new heights, and we can expect their relevance to grow further.

It’s not just about Gartner Peer Insights though. Trust Radius, G2 and other platforms gather reviews that influence B2B tech buying behaviours. It’s not just analysts that turn to peer review platforms for customer references when writing reports and other types of content. Research shows that 84% of software buyers use peer review sites when making a purchase decision too.

If you have not done this yet, your 2024 AR plan should contain a peer review programme that carefully outlines how you’re going to drive impactful and effective customer reviews.

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