Weekly signals are clustered into themes and ranked against the group's own strategy levers, so what arrives is judgement rather than a list of links.
Back to all proofs
From a weekly newsletter to a self-running innovation radar
Client
Date
$70B+ global energy utility
08/2026
The challenge
Inside a $70B+ global energy utility, a five-person innovation team had to spot the technology and market signals that could change a group of 90,000 across some 30 countries. Its only standing coverage was an internal trend scanner producing a newsletter of links. Everything beyond that was manual desk research, one question at a time.
The solution
FifthRow deployed an always-on innovation intelligence layer. Priority domains go in; a synthesised weekly radar comes out, ranked against the group's strategy levers, with scheduled standing systems running unattended and purpose-built systems layered on top for whitespace mapping, cross-market regulatory comparison and business prequalification.
284,680
analyst-hours displaced, the equivalent of 71 full-time analysts12
standing systems that deliver without anyone starting themMarket and technology scanningA synthesised weekly radar, ranked opportunities with rationale, built on 1,000+ sources per report
Reports reaching a domain lead each week~7 scheduled reports every Monday
Standing, unattended intelligence12 systems, 285 scheduled runs
Research volume since scheduling switched on332 runs against 10,025 sources in the first year, 3,587 runs against 382,036 sources in the eleven months since
Analyst-hours displaced284,680, the equivalent of 71 full-time analysts over the period
Twelve systems run on a fixed schedule against the domains the group has decided matter. Nobody starts them. Each one compares the current week against the last, so what lands is what changed, not what exists.
Core Activities
- Set a standing system running on each of the domains the group had decided mattered, one system per domain rather than one scan stretched across all of them
- Set each to scan patents, research, funding rounds, partnerships and startup activity within its domain, then classify what it finds against the group's strategy levers rather than simply collecting it
- Built a weekly innovation radar on top that clusters signals into themes and generates an opportunity brief, naming the three most disruptive opportunities with the reasoning behind each
- Delivered on a fixed Monday cadence into named inboxes, sized to be read in five to ten minutes with the full source-backed brief underneath
- Extended the domain set on request as operating units surfaced new areas, adding scheduled cross-market regulatory watches alongside the signal scans
The Results
Every Monday the innovation team receives roughly seven synthesised domain reports with ranked opportunities and rationale, each built from over a thousand verified sources. Coverage does not depend on anyone having time that week.
103,143
analyst-hours displaced by runs nobody started, roughly 26 full-time analysts of standing capacityEnergy regulation moves at different speeds in different jurisdictions, and the gap between them is where opportunity and risk both sit. A dedicated system compares the same regulatory question across markets on a standing schedule.
Core Activities
- Built a comparison system that takes one regulatory question and runs it across multiple national regimes in parallel
- Put the highest-value comparisons on a standing schedule, including one that has run continuously for months across two neighbouring European markets
- Ran targeted impact assessments where a specific directive was in play, reading it through to the parts of the business it would touch
- Extended coverage to forward-looking regulatory signals, surfacing what is coming rather than only what has passed
- Delivered each comparison as a structured, source-traceable output the team could take directly into a business-unit conversation
The Results
A standing, jurisdiction-by-jurisdiction regulatory picture on the domains where the group is deciding whether and where to invest, refreshed without anyone requesting it.
38
market-by-market regulatory reads produced without commissioning a study for any of themMonitoring tells you what is happening. This system tells you where nobody is. It clusters signals into themes, then identifies the gaps between them and sizes what sits in the gap.
Core Activities
- Built a bespoke whitespace opportunity identifier tuned to the group's asset base and pointed at the questions the group cared about most
- Ran emerging-trend discovery and a specific-trend monitoring radar against a client-supplied list of around 20 trends, refreshed weekly
- Combined whitespace mapping with voice-of-customer analysis on the same theme, so a gap in the market was checked against what customers actually said
- Produced whitespace analyses that fed directly into concept work, including an idea-to-concept build off one of the findings
- Turned repeat requests into permanent systems rather than repeating the research
The Results
A continuously refreshed map of where the group's strategy levers meet an unserved market, delivered as opportunity briefs that a business unit can act on rather than as research to be interpreted.
27,549
analyst-hours displaced by the whitespace and trend systems, the equivalent of 7 full-time analystsAn opportunity that survives the radar has to survive scrutiny. A purpose-built prequalification system takes a candidate business idea and produces the case for and against it.
Core Activities
- Prequalified 38 live opportunities against a consistent commercial standard
- Covered concrete investment questions across European and South American markets, each framed to the group's own strategy levers
- Ran market sizing as its own system where the number itself was the decision
- Added a lighter first-pass screen for opportunities that did not warrant the full case
- Fed prequalification outputs back into the radar so the same candidate did not get researched twice
The Results
A repeatable, evidence-backed business case on any candidate opportunity, with the same standard applied every time, so the innovation team can take a recommendation to a business unit rather than a hunch.
92,995
analyst-hours displaced across 38 prequalification runs, roughly 23 full-time analystsThe group's stated ambition is that a solution proven in one business unit or country becomes known and adopted across the others. FifthRow built the system that does the finding.
Core Activities
- Built a strategic scan system that takes a proven solution area and assesses it against a specific geography, iterated through two versions and run against a South American market at 30-day and 90-day lookbacks
- Built an innovation research playbook organised by asset type, covering the group's own asset classes across Europe
- Mapped a full value chain across more than 120 startups in three batched runs, producing a structured view of who is doing what and where the group already holds a position
- Accumulated the research on the platform so context compounds across cycles instead of being rebuilt for each new question
- Structured the outputs for direct reuse in business-unit presentations rather than as standalone reports
The Results
A growing, queryable body of structured intelligence on where solutions already proven inside the group could be applied next, and which external players are moving in the same space.
120+
startups mapped in three runs, with no landscape study commissionedWhat it proved
For the first year the team ran 332 research runs against 10,025 sources, one question at a time, every scan started by a person who had to remember to start it. Scheduled standing systems switched on in October 2025. In the eleven months since, the same team has run 3,587 research runs against 382,036 sources, 285 of those runs starting on a schedule with nobody pressing go. Thirty distinct systems have been run in production, from catalogue templates to a business prequalification engine built specifically for this account.
What the team holds now is standing credibility with the operating units it has to influence. A five-person unit inside a research organisation delivers a synthesised domain radar every Monday, a jurisdiction-by-jurisdiction regulatory picture that refreshes itself, and an evidence-backed business case on any candidate opportunity to the same standard every time. The engagement has been renewed twice, and twelve people are now active on the system. Across those 3,919 runs the platform records 284,680 analyst-hours displaced, the equivalent of 71 full-time analysts over the period. The intelligence layer covers domains that a team of that size could never have watched continuously.
Results
MetricBenchmarkResultImprovement
Agent runs per year
Benchmark: 332 in the first year, all manually startedResult: 3,587 in the following eleven months
10.8× moreSource material analysed per year
Benchmark: 10,025 in the first yearResult: 382,036 in the following eleven months
38× moreReports reaching a domain lead each week
Benchmark: 1 internal trend-scanner newsletter of linksResult: ~7 synthesised reports, from 12 standing systems
7× more, and synthesised rather than listedScheduled, unattended runs
Benchmark: 0 before October 2025Result: 285 across 12 standing systems
Roughly half of all source material now processed unattendedAnalyst-hours displaced
Benchmark: Manual desk research by a five-person unit, one question at a timeResult: 284,680 hours across 3,919 runs
The equivalent of 71 full-time analysts over the periodEach report is sized for the slot a domain lead actually has, with the full source-backed brief underneath for anyone going further.
Scans run to a fixed schedule with nobody starting them, so coverage no longer depends on a person remembering to ask for it.
Templates carry routine scanning while systems built for one specific decision carry the questions where money is at stake.
A signal the radar surfaces can be carried through to a prequalified, evidence-backed business case without a separate research effort.
Research accumulates on the platform, so each new question starts from the body of work already built rather than from nothing.
Recent case studies
See more proof
Cutting a four-month research cycle to six weeks across five validation workstreams
Client
$25B+ US energy & home-services company
Date
08/2026
6 days
from intake brief to a ranked opportunity reportA utility innovation lab that answers its own questions in a day
Client
$12B+ US electric & gas utility
Date
08/2026
1 day
from a new brief to a sourced assessmentMatter More
Let's Talk (opens in a new tab)
For Enterprises
ProofSee all
From a standing start to an AI venture serving small businesses
From 72 patents to 4 commercialisation-ready technologies
Cutting a four-month research cycle to six weeks across five validation workstreams
From a weekly newsletter to a self-running innovation radar
A full year's validated-concept target, met in the first quarter
A utility innovation lab that answers its own questions in a day
Finding the next high-growth US metro in five days
Follow Us
Follow us on Linkedin
FifthRow – The Agentic Consultancy
Copyright 2026 FifthRow Inc., Privacy policy