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Generate a daily competitor intelligence briefing with OpenAI and Gmail

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Generate a daily competitor intelligence briefing with OpenAI and Gmail preview
Open on n8n.io

1. Workflow Overview

Overview Know what your competitors are doing every morning before your first meeting. This workflow visits each competitor website daily, uses OpenAI to analyse it for strategic signals, and email...

Best for

  • Market Research automation workflows
  • AI Summarization automation workflows
  • advanced n8n builders looking for reusable templates

Tools used

n8n-nodes-base.scheduletrigger, n8n-nodes-base.code, n8n-nodes-base.httprequest, n8n-nodes-base.gmail, n8n-nodes-base.googlesheets, n8n-nodes-base.stickynote

Source and attribution

This workflow is cataloged by N8N Workflows and links back to its original n8n.io source page by Akshay Chug.

Original n8n.io source

1.1 Workflow description

Title
Generate a daily competitor intelligence briefing with OpenAI and Gmail
Workflow name
Generate a daily competitor intelligence briefing with OpenAI and Gmail

Overview

Know what your competitors are doing every morning before your first meeting. This workflow visits each competitor website daily, uses OpenAI to analyse it for strategic signals, and emails your team a consolidated executive briefing automatically.

How it works

  • A schedule trigger fires every morning at 8AM
  • Your list of competitor URLs is loaded from the Configure node
  • Each competitor page is fetched and stripped to clean readable text
  • GPT-4o-mini analyses each one for key signals, threat level, and recommended actions
  • All analyses are aggregated and sent to GPT-4o to write one consolidated executive briefing
  • The briefing is formatted as a clean HTML email and sent to your team via Gmail
  • Every run is logged to Google Sheets with the date and summary

Setup steps

  1. Competitors — Open Configure Competitors and Settings, replace the placeholder URLs with your real competitor URLs
  2. Your details — In the same node set YOUR_COMPANY and YOUR_FOCUS to describe your market
  3. OpenAI — Add your OpenAI API key as a credential at platform.openai.com
  4. Gmail — Connect your Gmail account in Send Email Briefing and set your team email in the Configure node
  5. Google Sheets — Create a sheet with columns: Date, Company, Competitors Analyzed, Briefing Summary. Connect your Google account and update the sheet ID in the Log node
  6. Activate the workflow — it runs automatically at 8AM every day

1.2 Logical Blocks

This catalog entry is organized from the workflow JSON. The node-level section below shows the executable blocks available for review before importing the template.

2. Block-by-Block Analysis

Block 1 - Daily 8AM Trigger

Type / Role
n8n-nodes-base.scheduleTrigger - scheduleTrigger
Config choices
Version 1.2

Block 2 - Configure Competitors and Settings

Type / Role
n8n-nodes-base.code - code
Config choices
Version 2

Block 3 - Fetch Competitor Page

Type / Role
n8n-nodes-base.httpRequest - httpRequest
Config choices
Version 4.2

Block 4 - Extract Text and Build AI Prompt

Type / Role
n8n-nodes-base.code - code
Config choices
Version 2

Block 5 - AI Analyze Competitor

Type / Role
n8n-nodes-base.httpRequest - httpRequest
Config choices
Version 4.2

Block 6 - Parse AI Response

Type / Role
n8n-nodes-base.code - code
Config choices
Version 2

Block 7 - Aggregate and Build Briefing Prompt

Type / Role
n8n-nodes-base.code - code
Config choices
Version 2

Block 8 - AI Generate Final Briefing

Type / Role
n8n-nodes-base.httpRequest - httpRequest
Config choices
Version 4.2

Block 9 - Format HTML Email

Type / Role
n8n-nodes-base.code - code
Config choices
Version 2

Block 10 - Send Email Briefing

Type / Role
n8n-nodes-base.gmail - gmail
Config choices
Version 2.1

Block 11 - Log to Google Sheets

Type / Role
n8n-nodes-base.googleSheets - googleSheets
Config choices
Version 4.4

Block 12 - Sticky Note

Type / Role
n8n-nodes-base.stickyNote - stickyNote
Config choices
Version 1

Block 13 - Sticky Note1

Type / Role
n8n-nodes-base.stickyNote - stickyNote
Config choices
Version 1

Block 14 - Sticky Note2

Type / Role
n8n-nodes-base.stickyNote - stickyNote
Config choices
Version 1

Block 15 - Sticky Note3

Type / Role
n8n-nodes-base.stickyNote - stickyNote
Config choices
Version 1

3. Summary Table

Workflow Generate a daily competitor intelligence briefing with OpenAI and Gmail
Complexity advanced
Nodes 15
Categories Market Research, AI Summarization
Author Akshay Chug
Published 07 Apr 2026

4. Reproducing the Workflow from Scratch

  1. 1. Download the workflow JSON

    Use the JSON export at /data/workflows/14850/14850.json as the source template for this automation.

  2. 2. Import the template into n8n

    Open n8n, import the downloaded JSON, and review each node before activating the workflow.

  3. 3. Configure credentials and variables

    Replace placeholder credentials, API keys, webhook URLs, account IDs, and environment-specific values with your own settings.

  4. 4. Test with sample data

    Run the workflow manually or in a staging workspace, inspect node output, and confirm downstream systems receive the expected data.

  5. 5. Activate and monitor

    Enable the workflow only after testing, then monitor executions, errors, and rate limits during the first production runs.

5. General Notes & Resources

Review imported nodes carefully before activation. This catalog entry is intended to help you inspect the workflow structure, understand required services, and find related templates faster.

Node names, credentials, schedules, webhook paths, and external service limits may need adjustment for your workspace.

Frequently asked questions

What does Generate a daily competitor intelligence briefing with OpenAI and Gmail do?

Overview Know what your competitors are doing every morning before your first meeting. This workflow visits each competitor website daily, uses OpenAI to analyse it for strategic signals, and email...

What do I need before importing this workflow?

Review the workflow JSON, configure any required credentials in n8n, and test the automation in a safe workspace before using it in production.

Can I customize this workflow?

Yes. Use the block-by-block analysis and the downloadable JSON to inspect each node, then adjust credentials, prompts, schedules, filters, or destinations for your Market Research, AI Summarization use case.