AI Over 40 Series - Week 6: Your Research Synthesis Partner

How AI turned months of stalled research into actionable insights—in minutes

When ArcherPoint joined Cherry Bekaert in October, one opportunity rose to the top: cross-selling. Overnight, our clients could access Cherry Bekaert’s broader services, and their clients could tap our Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central expertise. Simple in theory—hard in practice.

The Cheesecake Factory problem

The challenge wasn’t a lack of offerings; it was too many. As we learned more about our combined capabilities, I worried about giving clients the equivalent of a Cheesecake Factory menu—comprehensive, but overwhelming. What should we lead with? How do we keep things simple while still opening the door to broader conversations?

Why traditional research stalled

My default response was to research. I bought books on cross-selling, sales effectiveness, and professional services marketing. Months later, I had frameworks and notes—but not momentum. The uncomfortable truth: most business books contain a handful of useful insights spread across hundreds of pages. I was mining mountains of content for ounces of signal. Meanwhile, the real work waited.

Enter the AI research partner

Working with my AI advisory board reminded me: synthesis—not search—is where progress happens. I needed to compress exploration from months to hours. I started with three prompts:

1. As a business leader in a professional services firm, describe the challenges of effective cross-selling and upselling—both internal and go-to-market.
2. Summarize into key bullets.
3. Outline how organizations typically advance from immature to mature cross-sell practices.

Within minutes, I had a thorough, organized view of the problem and a maturity model that made sense. I tested multiple platforms (Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot) and found Claude best at broad, strategic synthesis for this use case. Your mileage may vary, but the result was undeniable: months of scattered reading collapsed into an afternoon of focused thinking.

The breakthrough: start with “door openers”

The most valuable insight was deceptively simple: most firms never progress past level one because they skip the foundation. The foundation is “door opener” or “portal” projects—small, clear, low-friction offerings that start a meaningful conversation without overwhelming clients.

A good door opener is:

• Easy to articulate in one or two sentences
• Obviously valuable to the client
• Low lift to approve and start
• Designed to lead to broader services once trust and traction are established

This reframed our approach. Instead of presenting everything we can do, we’re packaging targeted door openers around strategic services, giving sellers something concrete to carry into conversations—and giving clients a simple way to say yes.

What AI is (and isn’t) in research

AI didn’t “solve” cross-selling. Organizational change, incentives, culture, and leadership still matter. What AI did was remove the research barrier that keeps initiatives in the “someday” pile. It accelerated me from ambiguity to a practical plan—fast—so I could spend energy on execution, not excavation.

The research acceleration effect

• Traditional approach: Months of reading, weeks of synthesis, and too often…shelved.
• AI-enhanced approach: Minutes to a comprehensive framework, hours to tailor it, and immediate implementation.

This isn’t about outsourcing thinking. It’s about eliminating friction so your best thinking shows up sooner—and sharper.

Week 6 challenge: resurrect a stalled project

1. Name your Cheesecake Factory problem. Which initiative have you paused because the research felt daunting?
2. Pick the right AI partner. For broad strategic synthesis, Claude worked well for me; other tools shine in other tasks.
3. Use a three-prompt progression. Problem description → bullet synthesis → maturity path.
4. Aim for synthesis, not “the answer.” You’re building a map, not declaring victory.
5. Time-box the test. Compare 30 minutes with AI to months of traditional research. What did you learn—and what can you ship next?

From research barrier to implementation focus

For the first time in my career, the bottleneck isn’t access to information—it’s implementation bandwidth. AI won’t replace the hard work of aligning teams, evolving incentives, and executing consistently. But it will get you to a clear, confident starting point far faster—so progress can begin.

What strategic initiative have you been putting off because the research felt too big? Start there. Design one door opener. Put it in the hands of your sellers. See where the conversation leads.

This post is part of our “AI Over 40” series. It first appeared on LinkedIn: AI Over 40 – Week 6: Your Research Synthesis Partner.

Next Week: Explore applying a multi-AI approach to a real-world problem and how that can inform selecting the right AI specialist for the right challenge.

Read more AI and Copilot blogs.

Trending Posts