News, Events, and Perspectives — Q1 2025
Quarterly Newsletter for Aurora WDC, the Human Intelligence Company™
As the year winds down, we’re sending warm wishes to you and yours - both at home and at work - for a joyful season ahead. Looking for a little something extra? Explore our latest updates and offerings below.
Thanks for being a part of our community!
In this edition:
Updates on The Missionary and The Mercenary
Ask Questions of Your Content in FirstLight
Smart Summaries
AI Search
Updated Patent Search
Power Your Sales Strategy with Win/Loss Insights
ICYMI: Replay “How to Monitor Customers and Suppliers to Drive Insights and Actions.”
Our Take: Predicting the Future with Confidence
What’s New?
Updates on The Missionary and The Mercenary!
Aurora’s founder Arik Johnson and CEO Derek Johnson have released their forthcoming book, “The Missionary and the Mercenary,” chapter-by-chapter on Substack, with an official in-print and audiobook launch in Q1 2025. This book explores the tension between these two seemingly conflicting mindsets and identifies opportunities to channel each perspective to make actionable decisions and adapt to uncertainty. They’re wrapping up the audiobook recording next week, so it’ll be available in both print, digital, and audio formats. Subscribe to the Substack and be the first to know when the new book is ready for purchase.
In the meantime, they’ve integrated the book’s concepts into an Azure-based LLM. Using this tool, Derek and Arik share reflections on local business challenges, offering Missionary and Mercenary perspectives. These insights are posted regularly on their LinkedIn accounts. Follow them to join the conversation.
Ask Questions of Your Content in FirstLight
As we are continuing to experiment with GenAI and connect it with knowledge management and practical applications, we are developing solutions for all FirstLight users (Power Users and Content Viewers). These are built with a secure, portal-specific version of Microsoft Azure OpenAI to ensure that your data remains private and won’t be trained upon by others. Below are a few of our upcoming features, with many more on the horizon.
Smart Summaries
When uploading or viewing content and reports, you now have the option to press a button to have GenAI summarize it for you, reading through the current descriptions, urls, titles, and attachments on a post. You can also freely change the prompts to clarify concepts, change the tone of the summary, create a SWOT analysis, or anything else you’d like. This can be particularly useful for earnings reports, call transcripts, and longer reports with dense information.
AI Search
Curious about recent news on emerging topics or wondering if other companies are offering certain product features? Answers are only a search away. Our portal-wide copilot uses your curated data to generate accurate, cited responses. Ask follow-ups, explore sources, and stay confident knowing your data is already vetted.
Reach out to Liz Frickelton to see our AI capabilities in action.
Updated Patent Search
We’ve updated our API integration with the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) making it easier than ever to search for patents. You can keyword search or filter by organization or inventor name. The interface parallels our other feedbuilding approaches so it’s now a seamless, intuitive experience.
Did You Know?
Power Your Sales Strategy with Win/Loss Insights
Our primary research and elicitation experts go beyond simple surveys, conducting rich, qualitative win/loss interviews to understand the real reasons behind these outcomes. With our comprehensive analyses, we help you adjust your sales strategies and improve future deal success. We can then display the results of the win/loss research on a tailored dashboard that contains charts, analyst highlights, key quotes and more.
Reach out to Angela Forgues to explore how your team can leverage Win/Loss insights to drive success.
ICYMI
How to Monitor Customers and Suppliers to Drive Insights and Actions
This webinar presented by Aurora WDC's Emily Pillar and CI industry veteran Rich Caldwell discussed how to monitor customers for forecasting revenue, product usage and satisfaction, and unmet needs; monitoring suppliers for forecasting profit, product quality, and share of output; and coping with vertical integration in your market to maximize opportunities. The session explored how to leverage a value chain analysis and Porter's Five Forces model for analytic techniques, while highlighting the key intelligence topics and critical sources to examine.
Our Take
Predicting the Future with Confidence
With a new Presidential administration starting in 2025, along with the general uncertainty in the world, you’re probably asking yourself, “What’s going to happen?” but maybe don’t feel confident in your ability to answer that question, despite how important it is. Many industry professionals hesitate to include forecasts and estimative analyses in their products, fearing inaccuracy and the potential for misleading decision-makers. However, the ability to make well-reasoned estimates is crucial, especially in an ever-changing world where perfect accuracy is impossible. While generative AI either extrapolates from prior data or reiterates what others have written, human analysts can excel at creating novel intelligence by reflecting on their level of analytic confidence, including indicators and warnings, and using structured techniques to fortify their assessments. As a decision-maker, you then have to decide how much uncertainty are you willing to accept before you act? If you wait until you're 100% certain then you're already behind. By incorporating more forecasts and estimative analyses, you'll be less surprised, you’ll know what to look for, and you can make decisions with confidence.
Thanks for reading!