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An AI agent for competitor monitoring and research
ShiftHands lets you use an AI agent to research competitor websites from your own Mac. Give it pricing pages, product updates and other sources to check, then schedule daily or weekly research that reports back in its project chat. Review the sources and findings before deciding what to do next.
ShiftHands is a Mac app for running and supervising a team of AI agents. The agents run on your own Apple-silicon Mac; you can monitor their work, chat with them and respond to flagged command approvals from the Mac app or a desktop or phone browser.
What can an AI agent research about competitors?
Give the agent named pages and one clear question. Each job ends with a report you can check against the sources.
Pricing research
On demand“Read these three competitor pricing pages and compare plans, limits and billing terms.”
Output: A source-linked pricing summary.
Product updates
Weekly“Check these changelogs and product announcement pages for updates since the dates in my notes.”
Output: A dated feature-update brief.
Messaging research
On demand“Compare the homepages of these competitors and summarise their positioning and target customers.”
Output: A positioning comparison.
SEO competitor research
On demand“Read these competitor landing pages and identify topics and page structures worth investigating.”
Output: A content research brief.
Weekly competitive briefing
Every Monday“Every Monday, check these URLs against last week’s saved report and summarise material differences.”
Output: A scheduled result card with changes to verify.
These are illustrative instructions, not tested results. The weekly briefing only works if last week’s report is saved where the agent can read it; ShiftHands doesn’t archive competitor pages between runs.
For rankings and content work, see AI agents for SEO. Founders can see how research fits a wider team in AI agents for startups.
See it working
See a competitor research agent working
This is the real ShiftHands app with demo data. Open the Research project to see a Weekly competitor check result card. Its competitor names and findings are made up.
Recorded in the ShiftHands demo workspace.
Virtual Environment
Your AI team, in a 3D office.
Every ShiftHands plan, Free included, comes with the Virtual Environment: a 3D office in the app where your agents work at their desks, grouped by project. Walk over, pull up a chair, and watch your crew get it done.
Your boss desk
Sit down to see every project and every agent at a glance, and chat with anyone without leaving your chair.
Watch your agents work
Every agent has a desk in its project area. Agents running an automation head to the Automations room. Walk up to any agent and chat.
- Free and Pro
- No extra AI usage for the 3D view
- Mac app and web, including phone browsers
Rendered in the ShiftHands demo workspace with made-up names. Open the Virtual Environment from the sidebar or from Chief of Staff in the app. Agents still run on your Mac and use your connected AI accounts.
Sources
Choose which competitor sources to monitor
You decide what the agent reads. Give it the exact URLs and say what to pull from each one. It doesn’t discover competitors or websites on its own.
- Pricing pages: plans, limits, billing terms and trial details.
- Feature and product pages: what each plan includes.
- Changelogs and release notes: dated product updates.
- Blogs and announcements: launches and positioning shifts.
- Documentation and help centres: setup steps and stated limits.
- Homepages: headline claims and the customers they target.
Start with three to five pages per competitor. Pages behind a login need you to sign in first, and some sites block automated visits. Respect each site’s terms.
Change checks
Find pricing, product and messaging changes
An agent can tell you what a page says today. To say what changed, it needs something to compare against: your notes, an earlier report or a dated copy of the page.
Ask the agent to save each report with the date and URLs it checked. Next week’s run can then compare the live pages with that saved report. Without a baseline, treat any “change” as something to verify, not a fact.
Weekly competitor briefing
Illustrative format- Source
- Competitor pricing page
- Observed
- Current plan terms and limits
- Compared with
- Previous dated report supplied by user
- Potential change
- Difference to verify manually
- Evidence
- URL and date checked
- Next step
- Review before updating internal notes
Example fields for a report the user can request from an agent, not a native ShiftHands reporting template.
Scheduled briefs
Schedule competitor research briefings
Attach a schedule to the research agent and it repeats the check on its own. Each run posts a result card in the agent’s chat, marked Done or Needs review.
- Free: 2 automations, each at most once a day.
- Pro: hourly and every-few-hours schedules, no plan cap on automations.
- The automations view lists upcoming, running and finished runs.
- Ask for source URLs and the date checked in every report.
- Reply in the same chat to ask a follow-up question.
- Your Mac must stay on with ShiftHands open for runs to happen on time.
Setting up your first recurring job? Learn how to schedule AI agent tasks.
Review and approvals
Review findings and approve agent actions
An agent can prepare a competitor briefing for you to review, but its findings are not automatically verified. Check important claims against the linked source pages, including the date and pricing context. ShiftHands can hold flagged commands for Allow once or Deny depending on the agent’s settings, but not every browser action or file change requires approval.
- Open the linked page before acting on a pricing or feature claim.
- Prices can differ by country, account or billing term.
- A flagged command shows what will run and waits for Allow once or Deny.
- Typing “yes” in chat never counts as approval.
- Sign-ins are your step: Take control, sign in, then Return to agent.
An approval card from the ShiftHands demo workspace, with made-up names.
Away from your desk? You can manage AI agents from your phone browser and read each briefing there.
Set up your first competitor research agent
Six steps. Start with one competitor and a small report you check by hand.
1. Install ShiftHands
Use a compatible Apple-silicon Mac. See where ShiftHands agents run.
2. Connect a model
Sign in with Claude or ChatGPT, or add a supported API key.
3. Create a project and an agent
For example, a Competitor research project with one Research Assistant.
4. Give it three public URLs
Say exactly what to pull from each page.
5. Run it once and verify
Check the findings against those pages yourself.
6. Save a baseline, then schedule
Keep the dated report, then add a daily or weekly automation.
Install Ego Lite before browser research. It’s a free, separate Citro Labs download for macOS, with its own terms.
What competitor monitoring tools does ShiftHands include?
ShiftHands gives you a browser agent you direct and schedule. It is not a dedicated competitive-intelligence platform.
Included
- A live agent browser on your Mac (with Ego Lite).
- Agents with their own chats, histories and models.
- Daily or weekly scheduled runs; hourly on Pro.
- Result cards marked Done or Needs review.
- Flagged-command approvals with Allow once or Deny.
- Phone and desktop browser access to read reports.
Not included
- A historical snapshot archive or page-diff engine.
- Instant change alerts or continuous crawling.
- Built-in news, review-site, SEC, social or CRM feeds.
- Bulk scraping, bot-block or CAPTCHA workarounds.
- A competitor watchlist wizard or report template.
Competitor monitoring pricing and limits
Your ShiftHands plan sets the schedule limits. AI usage runs on the account you connect.
Free, $0
25 user messages a day, 1 project, 3 agents and 2 automations that run at most once a day.
Pro, $49.99 a month or $499 a year
No plan-level cap on messages, projects, agents or automations; fair use applies. Flexible schedules, including hourly.
Model usage
Your connected provider’s pricing and limits apply. ShiftHands doesn’t sell model credits.
Your Mac
Needs an Apple-silicon Mac that stays on with ShiftHands open. Browser work needs Ego Lite.
Automation runs don’t count toward the Free message cap. Full details: ShiftHands pricing.
Who should use an AI agent for competitor monitoring?
It suits people who need regular, checkable competitor research without a dedicated tool.
A good fit if
- You’re a founder, product marketer or SEO operator.
- You track a handful of named competitors and their pages.
- A daily or weekly briefing is often enough.
- You’re happy to check sources before acting.
- You have an Apple-silicon Mac that can stay on.
Look elsewhere if
- You need instant alerts the moment a page changes.
- You need archived screenshots or a version history of pages.
- You need structured price tracking across hundreds of products.
- You only have Windows or an Intel Mac, or want a cloud service.
Frequently asked questions
Can an AI agent monitor competitor websites automatically?
Yes, on a schedule. A ShiftHands agent revisits the pages you name daily or weekly (hourly on Pro) and posts a report. It is not a continuous crawler.
What competitor information can it research?
Anything on the pages it can open: pricing, plan limits, features, changelogs, blog posts, documentation and homepage messaging.
Can it detect changes to competitor pricing?
It can compare today’s pricing page with a dated earlier report you keep. Without that baseline, any reported change needs checking by hand.
Does ShiftHands keep historical competitor website snapshots?
No. There is no built-in archive or diff engine. Ask the agent to save each dated report so the next run has something to compare against.
How often can competitor checks run?
On Free, 2 automations at most once a day. On Pro, schedules can be hourly or every few hours. Your Mac must be on with ShiftHands open.
Can it access competitor pages behind a login?
Only if you sign in. Use Take control to sign in in the agent’s browser, then Return to agent. Follow each site’s terms.
Will I get an alert whenever a competitor changes something?
No. You get a result card after each scheduled run. ShiftHands doesn’t watch pages between runs or send instant change alerts.
Can I review reports from my phone?
Yes. Open ShiftHands in your phone’s browser to read result cards and reply to the agent. There is no native phone app.
Does it scrape competitor websites?
It reads pages in a normal browser, one task at a time. It doesn’t do bulk scraping or get around bot blocks or CAPTCHAs.
How much does competitor monitoring cost?
Free is $0 with 2 daily automations. Pro is $49.99 a month or $499 a year. Your AI provider’s pricing applies on top.
Does the agent need my Mac running?
Yes. Agents run on your own Apple-silicon Mac, not a cloud server. Keep it on with ShiftHands open for scheduled checks.
Can the agent guarantee it finds every change?
No. Pages can be blocked, change between runs or show different prices by region. Treat each briefing as a starting point and verify it.
Start with three competitor pages
Download the Mac app, create a research agent and give it three named competitor pages to check. Review its first report in chat.
Needs an Apple-silicon Mac (M1 or newer) with macOS 13 or later.
Screens and video come from the ShiftHands demo workspace with made-up names. Features and prices were checked on November 2, 2026 and can change.