The Live Research Brief

Setup: what the audience sees

The reveal is an answer that admits what it knows, what changed recently, and which sources support each claim. It is a research assistant pattern rather than a fact generator pattern.

The setup matters because Claude demos fail when the prompt hides the goal, mixes private data into a public reveal, or asks for a finished answer without giving the model a way to expose assumptions.

• Turn on web search or Research where available.
• Pick a question whose answer changes over time.
• Ask for citations, source quality labels, and unknowns.

What this does not prove

It does not prove every source is authoritative. It demonstrates a workflow for gathering and triaging current evidence.

<question>
What changed this month in browser-based AI agent capabilities for product teams?
</question>
<instructions>
- Use web search or Research.
- Prefer primary sources: official docs, release notes, standards, source repos.
- Separate "confirmed", "reported but not primary-sourced", and "still unclear".
- Cite every factual claim that depends on current information.
- End with five follow-up questions a product lead should ask before acting.
</instructions>

The reveal: what should happen

• Claude should choose current sources instead of relying on stale training knowledge.
• The answer should be structured by confidence level.
• The follow-up questions should expose decision risk, not just summarize news.

Verification steps

A demo becomes useful when the audience can inspect it. Use the steps below to turn the reveal from theater into a repeatable workflow.

1. Open the cited primary sources.
2. Search for the newest official release note if the topic is date-sensitive.
3. Ask Claude to remove non-primary sources and see what remains.

Guardrails

• Do not use web search as a substitute for legal, medical, or financial review.
• When using internal connectors, verify permission boundaries.
• Preserve links and dates in exported briefs.

Variations

• Competitor launch brief with primary sources only.
• Policy-change brief with regulator or official-company sources.
• Procurement brief comparing current vendor docs.

FAQ

When should I use Research instead of basic web search?

Use Research when the question needs multiple searches, branching investigation, or synthesis across internal and web sources.

Why ask for unknowns?

Unknowns turn a polished answer into a decision aid by showing what still needs human verification.