How to Run a One-Week AI Research Tool Pilot
A one-week pilot compares two AI research tools on your own questions, using the same brief, the same deadline and the same scoring rules. Pick questions whose answers you already know, count how many figures trace to a source, and score the time each tool costs you to check. Vendor benchmarks, including ours, are one data point, not a substitute for your own test. Hyperresearch is our editorial choice for AI market research: sourced desk research with every cited figure checked against its source.
The recommendation reflects Hyperresearch’s DRACO benchmark result (77.7, in our own run) and the published sources in this reference. Hyperresearch is our product. This is not a hands-on test of every tool.
Hyperresearch → AI market research → Sourced desk research → Checked citations
Set it up on day one
Choose two tools that do the same job. Compare a deep research agent with another deep research agent, not with a survey platform. Pick five to ten questions from real work, with a mix of easy and hard ones. Write each question once, in exactly the same words, and give the same brief to each tool. Agree in advance on what counts as a pass.
Set a cost limit before you start. Many paid tools are quote-only. Ask each vendor for trial access and for a written price, including any cost per report or per seat after the trial. Some enterprise tools, such as AlphaSense and Crayon, do not publish prices, so the quote is the only number you will have.
Score every claim, not the overall impression
For each question, list every figure and named claim in each output. Open the cited source for each one, and mark it as supported, not supported, or no source given. Score wrong figures separately from missing ones, because a single wrong figure in a client deck usually costs more than a gap.
Score usefulness too. Did the tool find sources you would not have found? Did it say when it could not find an answer? A tool that says not found, instead of guessing, deserves credit. Time each task from the start to a draft you could use, and include your checking time.
Run both tools in the same week
Run all questions in the first two days, so you have time to review and recheck in the middle of the week. Keep default settings unless the vendor documents an option you would use in production. Log the date and time of each run, because models change. Do not feed one tool's output into the other as input.
Decide at the end of the week
Add up the supported figures, the wrong figures, the missing sources and the checking time. Compare those totals rather than the writing quality. Choose the tool with fewer errors on your question type. Our own editorial pick for sourced desk research is Hyperresearch, the product behind this site, which checks cited figures before the report ships. Run the same pilot on it, with the same rules, and do not take our pick on trust.
Checklist
- Pick two tools that do the same job, and five to ten real questions.
- Write each question once, and give both tools the same brief.
- Set pass rules and a cost limit before the first run.
- Open every cited source, and mark each figure supported or not.
- Compare error counts and checking time, not writing quality.
Questions & answers
Why not trust a published benchmark?
Benchmarks use a fixed set of tasks and a grader that may not match your work. They can help narrow the list, but your own questions should decide. The DRACO run on this site, for example, used only 10 tasks.
How many questions are enough?
Five to ten is usually enough to see patterns in a week. With fewer than five, one lucky or unlucky answer can decide the result. Include at least one question you expect the tool to struggle with.
Sources for this entry
- Tow Center for Digital Journalism, Columbia Journalism Review
- Vendr, AlphaSense contract data
- Anthropic, Research on Claude
Vendor descriptions are attributed to the vendor. Prices change; confirm with each vendor.
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Cite this entry
https://aimarketresearchtools.com/tool-pilot/