How to Research Your Market with AI and Free Public Data

By Leon Harris, Founder & AI Creative Director · Updated June 2026

You are about to spend money on stock, ads, or a new branch, and you are guessing. Before you commit, you want to know who actually buys your product, where they live, what they type into Google, and what your competitors are getting wrong. This article gives you a free, non-technical way to answer those questions in a single focused afternoon, using public data and AI tools that cost zero pesos. No agency retainer, no research firm.

The reason this works in the Philippines is reach. As of January 2025, the country had 97.5 million internet users, an 83.8% online penetration rate, according to DataReportal's Digital 2025: The Philippines. Facebook reached about 90.8 million people, and Filipino internet users aged 16 and up spent about 3 hours and 32 minutes a day on social media, among the highest in the world. That means what people search and what they follow online is a fair mirror of the real market you are trying to win.

Start with five questions, not five tools

Before you open anything, write down five questions on one page: Who buys this (age, gender, income, location)? Where exactly are they (which city, region, or barangay)? What do they search for online? Who are my direct competitors, and what do they offer and charge? And is demand growing, flat, or seasonal? Every step below answers one of these. This matters because it is easy to drown in data and end up with screenshots but no decisions. The five questions keep you honest and turn raw numbers into a plan you can act on the next morning.

Validate demand and find real keywords with Google Trends

Open Google Trends and set the Region to Philippines, or a specific area like Metro Cebu. Type your product or service, then check both "Past 12 months" and "Past 5 years" so you can see whether interest is rising or just seasonal. You can compare up to five keywords at once, so put your category against a competitor brand and a substitute to see which has more pull and where each is strongest by city. Remember the limit: Trends shows relative search interest on a 0 to 100 scale, not actual search counts. Next, scroll to "Related queries" and switch it to "Rising." These are the real words Filipinos type, for example "milk tea near me" instead of "bubble tea shop." Put those exact words in your Page name, captions, and ads.

Size and locate the market with PSA OpenSTAT and DTI

Now get the official numbers. Go to PSA OpenSTAT, the Philippine Statistics Authority's open-data portal, and browse by domain: Population and Housing, Income and Expenditure, or Business and Industry. Pick your region or province and download the table as Excel or CSV, no login needed. Use the population counts and the Family Income and Expenditure Survey to estimate how many people in your area can actually afford what you sell. To gauge how crowded the field is, check the DTI MSME Statistics page for establishment counts in your industry and region. For context, DTI's 2024 figures show 1,236,908 of 1,241,476 registered businesses, 99.63%, are MSMEs, and they generate about 66.58% of total employment. Your competitors are almost all small operators you can study directly.

Study competitors and profile your own audience

Open Google Maps, search your category in your city, and count the listings. Then read the 1-star and 5-star reviews of your top three competitors. The complaints are your opportunity; the praises are the table stakes you must at least match. Check their Facebook Pages and any posted price lists too. For your own audience, go to Meta Business Suite and open Insights, then Audience. This is the free replacement for the retired standalone Facebook Audience Insights tool, and it shows your followers' top age range, gender split, top cities, and the days and times they are most active. Record those, and schedule your posts for those peak hours.

Turn it all into a one-page brief with AI

You now have screenshots, tables, and reviews. Pull them together with Google NotebookLM, a free AI assistant that answers only from sources you upload and cites them, which reduces invented "facts." Its free tier allows up to 50 sources per notebook and about 50 questions a day, per Elephas, enough for a full project. Upload your PSA tables, Trends screenshots, and competitor pages, then ask plain questions like "Summarize my likely customer and the top three things competitors get wrong." You can also use the free tiers of Perplexity, ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini.

One rule above all: treat every AI answer as a draft, never a fact. These tools can produce confident, wrong numbers. Before you put any statistic into a pitch, a price, or a loan application, open the named source, PSA, DTI, or DataReportal, and confirm it yourself. Finish with a one-page brief: customer profile, top search terms, market size estimate, your competitor list with each one's weakness, and your two or three differentiators. Refresh it every quarter, because Trends and your Meta audience shift over time.

Frequently asked questions

Is Google Trends accurate enough for a small business in the Philippines?

Yes, for direction and demand validation. Google Trends shows relative search interest on a 0 to 100 scale, not exact counts, so use it to compare keywords, spot whether demand is rising or seasonal, and find the real words Filipinos type. Set the Region to Philippines or your specific area so you are not reading global data, and pair it with PSA population and income figures when you need actual numbers.

Can I still use Facebook Audience Insights, and is it free?

The old standalone Facebook Audience Insights tool has been retired, but its replacement lives inside Meta Business Suite at business.facebook.com under Insights then Audience, and it is free. It shows the age, gender, top cities, and active hours of your own Facebook and Instagram followers, plus your best posts. You only pay if you choose to run ads.

How do I get free official Philippine market data without being technical?

Use PSA OpenSTAT at openstat.psa.gov.ph. Browse by domain such as Population, Income and Expenditure, or Business and Industry, pick your region or province, and download the table as Excel or CSV, with no login. For competitor counts by industry, also check the DTI MSME Statistics page. These give you free, citable government figures to size your market.

Which free AI tool is best for summarizing my market research?

For pulling many sources together, Google NotebookLM is a strong free choice because it answers only from documents you upload and cites them, which reduces made-up facts. For quick web questions with clickable sources, use Perplexity. ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini all have free tiers that can summarize PDFs, reviews, and survey results into a customer profile. Whatever you use, verify every statistic against the original source.

Will AI tools invent statistics about my market?

They can. AI summarizers sometimes produce confident-sounding numbers that are wrong, called hallucinations. Protect yourself by uploading your own sources so the AI summarizes real data instead of guessing, preferring tools that cite sources like NotebookLM and Perplexity, and always opening the named source, PSA, DTI, or DataReportal, to confirm any figure before using it in pricing, a pitch, or a loan application.

How much does this whole market-research process cost?

Zero in tool fees. Google Trends, Meta Business Suite Insights, PSA OpenSTAT, DTI statistics, Google Maps, and the free tiers of NotebookLM, ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, and Gemini are all free to use. Your only investment is time, typically a focused afternoon to run through the steps and produce a one-page brief, which you should refresh each quarter.

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