Desk research
Desk research is the analysis of existing published sources, such as reports, filings, government data and news, instead of new data collection.
What it means
Desk research, also called secondary research, starts with material someone already published. Typical inputs include company filings, trade association reports, census tables, analyst notes and news archives. It is usually the cheapest first step in a project because it answers what is already known before anyone spends money on fieldwork.
AI research agents do most of their work as desk research. A useful brief names the sources to use and the date range. For example, a team checking demand for cold-chain warehousing might ask for recent SEC filings from three public operators, Census trade figures and two trade association reports, then request a table listing each number with its origin. Quality depends on how recent the sources are and whether they are independent of each other.
Continue this reading path
Cite this entry
https://aimarketresearchtools.com/glossary/desk-research/