How to Get AI Market Research That Survives CFO Scrutiny
The research prompt that traces every claim to 10-Ks, government data, and academic sources
Hey Adopter,
38% of AI-generated market research contains at least one material factual error. McKinsey tested sector analysis from LLMs and found citation inflation, unfounded projections, and conclusions that contradicted the cited sources.
The mistake: treating AI like a report vending machine. Feed it a prompt, get 2,000 confident words, and discover that half the statistics don’t exist when someone asks where the numbers came from.
Here’s the prompt that fixes this. Copy it into Perplexity, answer the questions it asks, and get defensible analysis that traces every claim to SEC filings, government data, and academic research.
What happens when you use this
Paste the prompt into Perplexity. Turn on SEC filings access in the settings menu
Perplexity asks: “Which sector are we analysing?”
You answer: “Enterprise AI adoption in financial services.”
Perplexity asks: “What’s driving this analysis?” You pick one of the four options.
Perplexity asks 5 more questions about decision criteria, time horizon, and key factors.
After question 7, Perplexity builds your research plan. Shows you which sources it will prioritise, what verification standards apply, how it will structure the analysis.
Then Perplexity goes to work. Searches SEC filings for financial data. Pulls government statistics. Finds academic research. Cites every claim with source links and collection dates.
You review each section. Perplexity asks: “Does this answer your key question? What evidence would make you more confident?”
Perplexity runs the validation pass. Shows you which conclusions rest on strong evidence and which ones need hedging language.
The difference: 90 minutes of structured conversation that produces defensible analysis instead of 10 minutes that produces confident hallucinations.
Why Perplexity
One-shot prompt in ChatGPT: “Analyse the healthcare AI sector.”
AI invents three companies that don’t exist. Cites a Gartner report that was never published. Projects 34% growth with no methodology. You present this to leadership. Someone asks where the numbers came from. You have no answer.
(to be fair, ChatGPT has gotten better with hallucinations especially when web search is turned on, but I find it’s still not being competitive)
Research prompt in Perplexity: Perplexity asks what decision this analysis informs, then goes out and finds the sources.
Searches SEC filings for revenue data from public healthcare AI companies. Pulls Bureau of Labour Statistics employment trends. Finds peer-reviewed research on adoption rates. Returns with: “Based on 10-K filings from 8 public companies and BLS healthcare occupation data through Q2 2024, revenue growth ranges 18-31% with a median 23%.”
The gap between “AI-generated confidence” and “CFO-approved analysis” is just a research methodology.
When someone asks where the numbers came from, you click the citation links. They lead to Tesla’s 10-K filed November 2024, Section 7, page 42. Bureau of Labour Statistics table released September 2024. JAMA article published June 2024 with disclosed methodology.
That’s the conversation that ends with “approved” instead of “let’s revisit this.”
The Perplexity sector research prompt
Copy the prompt below and paste it into a new Perplexity conversation. Make sure SEC filings are enabled in your settings before starting.