AR frameworks, tactics and AI-aware strategies:
Reboot, re-prioritize and prove ROI
Reprioritize AR Spending
Your Analyst Relations program isn’t expensive because of analyst subscriptions. It’s expensive when AR teams spend money on the wrong things. For example, those briefings where analysts just nod, tell you these were “great insights” and then nothing happens … except that you’ve just activated their sales rep.
The hidden cost isn’t the time. It’s the missed opportunity. Every briefing should:
- Challenge a flawed assumption
- Share contrarian data or perspectives
- Ask questions that reshape the analyst’s thinking
Taking a closer look at how top-performing AR programs measure “influence per interaction” instead of just “interactions”, there’s a growing gap between quantity-focused and influence/outcomes-focused AR.
The question isn’t whether your program is busy. It’s whether it’s effective. If you’re measuring analyst touchpoints but not analyst impact, you’re tracking activity while your competitors are driving perception shifts.
That gap compounds over time, and it shows up in the one place that matters: the research that shapes your buyers’ decisions.
Shift from Relationships to a Control Room for AI‑first Buying Journeys
On top of relationships and decks routine, here’s five new challenges for AR leaders today:
- Orchestrate agentic AI co-pilots
- Map analyst influence in near or real-time
- Track which vendors are showing up as “best answers” in AI search (and why!)
- Optimise RFI responses for answer engines so LLMs can interpret, trust and cite their proof points
- Put AI governance on the board agenda before a misinterpreted AI summary turns into a reputational issue
If your AR plan for the next FY still revolves around counting the number of briefings with a static set of tiered analysts, then you’re optimising for the wrong playing field.
A quick three-step set of winning strategies:
- Treat internal co-pilots as standard infrastructure, not experiments
- Monitor how often you and competitors appear in AI-generated answers to mission-critical queries
- Design briefings and events so their outputs perform better in AI search
Identify The Analyst's Invisible Hand
Spot analysts shaping your deals before sales leaders do. Use inquiry data, RFP tells and CRM tracking to identify influence, coach executives – and turn obstacles into advantages through proactive advisory and proof points.
Use AI to Respond to Analyst RFIs
We combine deep knowledge of analyst expectations with AI-aware content practices to ensure that submissions, briefings and proof points are structured for both human analysts and the LLMs that increasingly surface their work.
We guide vendors through the jungle of AI tools that can fast-track an RFI submission – and highlight the importance of avoiding AI slop.
We also help AR teams to get to grips with Answer Engine Optimization (AEO), organizing evidence, customer references and differentiated capabilities in ways maximize visibility in AI tools.
Flip the Script: Prove AR's Impact on Pipeline
Analyst Relations teams roll out the red carpet for analysts, yet internally, AR budgets face constant scrutiny.
Effective AR leaders flip the script and enlist top analysts to prove the pipeline impact of this engagement.
Here’s a simple two-step process:
- Prompt analysts to provide evidence in calls with your executives: Encourage them to share specifics, such as “We reviewed 175 of your contracts/shaped 50 RFPs in the last year” during briefings.
- Harvest metrics internally: Collect inquiry data, deal touches and evidence of AR-qualified leads for CRM attribution, and detail how AR helped boost win rates. This data is especially useful in QBRs.