Strategy frameworks are only as good as the data that fills them. AI can populate SWOT analyses, Porter's Five Forces, and other frameworks in minutes — leaving you time to do what only you can do: apply judgment and make recommendations.
Strategy frameworks are structured thinking tools. They tell you what categories of questions to ask. But filling them in has always been labor-intensive — researching competitors, gathering financial data, analyzing market dynamics. AI compresses that labor dramatically.
The important caveat: AI fills frameworks with publicly available information. For client-specific insight, you still need interviews, proprietary data, and your own judgment. Use AI to get 70% of the work done fast — then apply your expertise to the remaining 30% that actually differentiates your work.
A SWOT analysis has four quadrants: Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats. Give Claude the company context and it populates all four with substantive, specific content.
You are a senior strategy consultant. Conduct a thorough
SWOT analysis for [company name], a [brief description
of what the company does and its market position].
For each quadrant, provide 5-7 specific, substantive
points — not generic observations. Each point should be
one sentence with a brief rationale.
Strengths: internal capabilities and advantages
Weaknesses: internal limitations and gaps
Opportunities: external trends the company can exploit
Threats: external forces that could harm the business
After the SWOT, add a "Strategic Implications" section
that identifies the 2-3 most important SO strategies
(strengths + opportunities) and the 1-2 most critical
WT risks (weaknesses + threats).Porter's Five Forces analyzes the competitive structure of an industry across five dimensions: competitive rivalry, supplier power, buyer power, threat of new entrants, and threat of substitutes. It's a staple of strategy engagements.
Conduct a Porter's Five Forces analysis for the
[industry name] industry. For each force:
1. Rate the intensity: Low / Medium / High
2. Provide 3-4 specific factors that drive that rating
3. Note any trends that are changing this force's intensity
Forces to analyze:
- Competitive Rivalry
- Threat of New Entrants
- Threat of Substitutes
- Bargaining Power of Suppliers
- Bargaining Power of Buyers
Close with an "Overall Industry Attractiveness" paragraph
that synthesizes the five forces into a verdict on whether
this is a structurally attractive or difficult industry.Once you have a framework filled in, ask Claude to challenge it. This is one of the most valuable uses of AI in consulting — getting a rapid "red team" on your own analysis.
You are a skeptical senior partner reviewing this
analysis. Identify:
1. Three assumptions in this analysis that, if wrong,
would significantly change the conclusions
2. Two important factors this analysis seems to
overlook entirely
3. The one finding that is most likely to be challenged
by a skeptical client — and how to defend it
[PASTE YOUR SWOT OR PORTER'S ANALYSIS]For clients with multiple product lines or business units, the BCG Matrix (Stars, Question Marks, Cash Cows, Dogs) is useful for portfolio analysis.
Analyze the product portfolio of [company] using
the BCG Matrix framework.
Company context: [description of company and its products]
Available data: [paste any revenue, market share, or
growth data you have]
For each product/business unit, assign a BCG category
(Star, Question Mark, Cash Cow, or Dog) with rationale.
Then recommend a portfolio strategy: what to invest in,
what to harvest, what to exit.Take a real client engagement and run all three analyses — SWOT, Porter's, and red team — in a single sitting. Time how long it takes. Then ask yourself: what would this have cost in analyst hours at your billing rate? That delta is your AI leverage ratio.