Automate
Advanced·60 min
Draft a market-entry business case with a research agent
Use a Market Landscape Research Agent to synthesize market and competitive data into a structured market-entry recommendation.
Copilot StudioUpdated Sep 30, 2026
Business Outcome
A faster go/no-go decision because the supporting case is assembled and checkable, not scattered across five people's inboxes.
Handle with care
Confidential financial projections
Investment cost and return figures are often competitively or internally sensitive. If you don't have a licensed Copilot for steps 2-3, strip specific dollar figures or an internal project codename before pasting into ChatGPT or Claude — describe the shape of the numbers instead.
Workflow Overview
The apps run in this order. At the AI step, pick whichever of these you have — they're alternatives, not a sequence.
Excel
Word
ChatGPT
Claude
CopilotCopilot works differently from the others: with a paid Microsoft 365 Copilot license it's built right into the app above, no copy-pasting needed. Without a license, use it the same way as ChatGPT or Claude — in its own chat window.
Step 1: Gather the underlying numbersExcel
Pull cost estimates, expected returns, and any comparable past investments into one Excel workbook, organized as a Table per data set (costs, returns, comparables) rather than loose cells scattered across a sheet.
Named, structured data is what lets Copilot (and you, later) reference specific figures reliably when the narrative gets drafted in the next step.
Step 2: Ask Copilot to build the case from the numbersCopilotChatGPTClaude
Have it work from the Excel data outward into the Word document, so every number in the narrative traces back to the workbook.
Prompt idea:
Using the cost and return estimates in this workbook, draft a business case for the investment: executive summary, cost breakdown, expected ROI with assumptions stated, key risks, and a clear recommendation.
Step 3: Stress-test the recommendation against a downside caseCopilotChatGPTClaude
Ask what the case looks like if the return estimate is 20% lower than projected — a business case that only survives the optimistic scenario isn't a complete one.
Step 4: Route to whoever actually approves the investmentWord
Know the approval threshold and audience before finalizing — a case pitched at the wrong level of detail slows the decision down.
Check the work
- Trace every number in the narrative back to the source workbook.
- Confirm the downside scenario was actually run, not just mentioned as a caveat.
- Check the recommendation follows logically from the data presented, not from an assumed conclusion.
Expected Outcome
A structured business case document with costs, expected returns, risks, and a clear recommendation, backed by the underlying data.
✓
AI is the right call here
Step 1's number-gathering and step 4's routing are mechanical. Steps 2-3 need real judgment: turning a workbook into a defensible narrative and stress-testing it against a worse-than-expected outcome isn't something a formula does.
Non-AI alternative: If this business case recurs quarterly for similar investments, a reusable Excel template for step 1's inputs turns that step into a refresh instead of a re-gather.
Related Workflows
Meet
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Run a structured business review meeting
Organize the agenda, supporting materials and follow-through for a recurring business review with Copilot's help.
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PowerPointUpdated Sep 30, 2026
WORK WITH LIMINALS
Ready to roll this out beyond one person?
Workflows like this tend to raise real governance and licensing questions once more than one person is using them — that's exactly what we help with.