BCC Research Launches VerticalContext Chat Trial

- BCC Research's new tool is part of a broader industry trend where AI, specifically Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG), is being used to unlock value from proprietary datasets. The company's AI is trained exclusively on its own curated library of over 1,000 market research reports, avoiding the use of publicly scraped web data. - The service is built on what BCC calls a Model Context Protocol (MCP), an endpoint that allows a company's existing AI systems—including those from OpenAI, Anthropic, and Microsoft—to query BCC's vector database for validated market data with citations. - For more direct integration into custom data pipelines and applications, BCC Research provides an API that allows for programmatic access to its market research data. - The proprietary database covers over 25 industry verticals, with a historical focus on science and technology sectors like life sciences, advanced materials, and nanotechnology. This provides a deep, specialized knowledge base for the AI. - This launch places BCC Research in competition with enterprise search and intelligence platforms like Glean and Hebbia, which also leverage AI to surface insights from internal company data. However, VerticalContext Chat's differentiator is its pre-existing, structured library of external market data. - The move follows a strategic merger between BCC Research and UK-based Futuresource Consulting in April 2024, a deal aimed at expanding their combined technological capabilities, with a specific focus on leveraging AI.