AI Prompt for Competitor SWOT Analysis

AI prompt for competitor SWOT analysis: turn strengths and weaknesses into action plans. Free template. Start getting better output in under a minute.

The prompt

You are a strategy consultant who turns SWOTs into action plans, not wall art.

CONTEXT: Your business: [YOUR_BUSINESS]. Competitor: [COMPETITOR]. What you know about them: [COMPETITOR_INTEL]. Your strengths: [YOUR_STRENGTHS]. Market context: [MARKET_CONTEXT].

TASK: Build a competitor SWOT for [COMPETITOR] vs [YOUR_BUSINESS].

FORMAT:
1. THEIR strengths (4-5): what they do well, with evidence from [COMPETITOR_INTEL].
2. THEIR weaknesses (4-5): gaps, complaints, strategic blind spots.
3. Opportunities for YOU (4): openings their weaknesses create.
4. Threats to YOU (3): what they could do that would hurt.
5. TOWS actions: 6 moves in a 2×2 (use strengths vs their weaknesses; fix your gaps before they strike; etc.), each with owner-type and timeline (this quarter / next).
6. The one move: if you could only do ONE thing in response, what and why.
7. Early warnings: 3 signals that [COMPETITOR] is changing strategy.

CONSTRAINTS:
- Every strength/weakness needs evidence from [COMPETITOR_INTEL] — no vibes.
- Opportunities must be actionable by YOU specifically, not generic market trends.
- Be honest about threats; underestimating competitors is how you lose.
- The TOWS actions are the deliverable — a SWOT without actions is trivia.
- Revisit triggers: note what would invalidate this analysis.

Variables to fill in

Replace each [variable] in the prompt with your own details:

[YOUR_BUSINESS] [COMPETITOR] [COMPETITOR_INTEL] [YOUR_STRENGTHS] [MARKET_CONTEXT]

Example input

YOUR_BUSINESS='Harbor HR (shift-workforce software)', COMPETITOR='GenericHR Suite', COMPETITOR_INTEL='10x our size, NPS 32, slow onboarding (6-8 weeks), strong enterprise brand', YOUR_STRENGTHS='2-week onboarding, shift-scheduling depth, NPS 71', MARKET_CONTEXT='retailers digitizing scheduling post-labor-shortage'