General
What is Phil?
Coming late March 2026, Phil is IBISWorld’s conversational, AI economist, now available on Procurement Reports and SupplierIQ profiles. Phil enables procurement professionals to ask natural‑language questions and receive instant, contextual answers grounded in ProcurementIQ’s analyst‑written research.
Phil combines large language models (LLMs) with IBISWorld’s proprietary data and human‑verified analysis to deliver answers you can confidently use in procurement decision‑making.
What can I use Phil to do?
Phil is designed to take the heavy lifting out of procurement research and analysis. You can use Phil to:
Find information faster: Ask direct questions instead of manually navigating reports. Phil surfaces the most relevant insights and links back to source sections.
Understand pricing and cost dynamics: Analyze price trends, cost drivers, forecasted changes, and timing considerations (buy now vs. later).
Assess supply chain risk: Identify import dependencies, geographic concentration, external disruptions, and alternative sourcing considerations.
Evaluate suppliers: Assess supplier size, financial strength, competitive position, market participation, and risk exposure.
Support negotiation and contracting: Identify negotiation levers, pricing power dynamics, key contract terms, and SLA considerations.
Prepare RFPs and internal recommendations: Draft RFP outlines, compliance checklists, KPIs, and stakeholder‑ready summaries.
Phil is built to support real procurement workflows such as category strategy, supplier evaluation, negotiation preparation, risk assessment, and internal stakeholder communication.
Where can I find Phil?
Phil is available directly within ProcurementIQ content, including:
Procurement Reports (market / category view)
SupplierIQ profiles (single supplier view)
Phil opens in the right-hand panel alongside the report or supplier profile you are viewing, allowing you to ask questions without leaving the page.
Is Phil included in my subscription?
Yes, Phil is included for ProcurementIQ clients at no additional cost.
Phil is enabled by default for ProcurementIQ clients. Organizations with specific policies or restrictions around AI tools can request that Phil be disabled for your account. Please reach out to your Client Relationship Manager.
Does IBISWorld use AI analysis in its reports?
No, all our research is conducted by our in-house analysts based across our offices in the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, and Australia.
We treat AI as a synthesis tool used to enhance, not replace, our analysts. Per our internal Copyright Policy, AI may be used to accelerate early-stage research of lower value tasks but analysts retain full responsibility for judgment, verification, accuracy, and insight generation. Only analysts interpret the data, perform calculations, and produce the forecasts and analysis published in our reports.
Phil does not analyze or change our industry information; they simply scour an industry report for the information you need and provide you with in-context answers to your research questions.
Using Phil in Procurement Reports
What types of question can I ask Phil in Procurement Reports?
Phil can help answer procurement‑focused questions such as:
How current market trends could affect the prices you pay
Which cost drivers have the greatest impact on pricing
How prices are expected to change over the next 1–3 years
What supply chain risks could affect availability or lead times
How supplier concentration affects buyer power
Whether market conditions favor buying now or waiting
What regulatory or compliance considerations apply to the category
What should be included in an effective RFP
Phil synthesizes relevant sections of the Procurement Report and links back to source content for transparency.
Can Phil help with negotiation strategy and RFP preparation?
Yes. Phil can:
Highlight supplier pricing power and market leverage
Suggest negotiation considerations based on market structure
Identify contract terms and SLAs commonly prioritized in the category
Generate negotiation questions tailored to pricing, risk, and capabilities
Using Phil in SupplierIQ Profiles
What types of question can I ask Phil about suppliers?
In SupplierIQ profiles, Phil can help answer questions related to:
Supplier size, ownership, and operating history
Core products, services, and market participation
Competitive position and market share
Financial strength, revenue stability, and risk indicators
Geographic footprint and supply chain exposure
Can Phil help assess supplier risk?
Yes. Phil can help:
Understand financial, operational, and market risks
Identify potential red flags for due diligence
Assess whether a supplier may be low, medium, or high risk
Highlight risks to monitor if a supplier is onboarded
Phil’s responses are grounded in SupplierIQ data and clearly reflect confidence levels and limitations.
Can Phil compare suppliers?
At launch, Phil answers questions within a single supplier profile or a single market at a time. It does not compare multiple suppliers simultaneously.
Access and pricing
Is there a limit to how much I can use Phil?
Yes, each user is allowed 100 questions per month. The limit resets on the first of each month. Unused questions do not roll over to the next month, and you cannot transfer unused questions to other users on your account.
Limit policies differ slightly for academic accounts.
Does clicking on one of the follow-up questions count toward my question limit?
Yes, clicking on the follow-up questions counts towards your question limit.
Does clicking on one of the chapter suggestions count toward my question limit?
No, clicking on the chapter suggestions does not count towards your question limit.
Can I turn Phil off on my account?
Yes, your Client Relationship Manager can manually disable Phil on your account.
Can I purchase additional questions if I reach my limit?
You cannot purchase additional questions. This may change in the future based on user demand.
Why don’t I have access to Phil on my account?
You may not have access to Phil for any of the following reasons:
Your administrator may have disabled Phil on your account
Phil is currently unavailable to answer questions for the following reports:
Business Environment Profiles
Occupation Profiles
Price Index Profiles
If you’re unsure why you can’t access Phil, please contact your Client Relationship Manager.
Usage and functionality
What is a RAG model, and how does Phil use it?
A RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) model combines large language models with external databases to enhance the accuracy and relevance of responses. Phil uses RAG to retrieve information from IBISWorld's proprietary database before generating answers, ensuring responses are grounded in reliable and curated industry insights. Phil uses 3rd party large language models provided by Azure OpenAI Service.
Does Phil reference information across the web to generate answers?
No, Phil only uses information from IBISWorld’s database to generate responses. Although Phil possesses general knowledge that extends beyond the facts and figures in our reports—based on Open AI’s GPT-4.1 Large Language Model (LLM)—its answers always use our reports as the source for any industry-related questions. Phil will avoid answering questions that would require access to the wider internet for answers.
Who owns the output generated by Phil? Am I at risk of plagiarism violations if I copy and paste from Phil?
IBISWorld owns all content on the IBISWorld platform. IBISWorld clients are licensed to use the content per the terms of their contract.
Can I reference Phil’s answers later or view my recently asked questions?
No, your queries will not be saved when you exit the report you used Phil in.
Can Phil reply with the content from other reports or only the one I’m in?
Phil is currently only capable of searching within either the Procurement Report or the Supplier Profile that you are in.
Phil is not currently able to search across reports or compare information from two separate reports.
What kind of language does Phil understand?
Phil is designed to understand and respond to questions asked in plain English. For best results, be specific and clear when asking questions.
Can Phil provide data visualizations?
Phil currently provides text-only responses. For data visualizations, such as charts and graphs, you can view the related chapter of the report.
Can Phil answer multi-part questions?
Phil is designed to handle one question at a time, so it’s best to break complex questions into multiple parts if needed. Phil references the last four messages in a chat to provide contextual responses.
Data and privacy
Does IBISWorld retain my data, such as which questions I’ve asked Phil?
Yes, but only for short periods and service quality purposes. Here are the different ways we temporarily retain your conversation data with Phil:
In-session memory: While you are viewing a report, Phil remembers your last four questions and answers so you can easily refer back to them. This “memory” is kept in an encrypted, in-memory data store and is automatically deleted 24 hours after your session ends.
System logs: A desensitized copy of each question is written to our monitoring system (Datadog) so we can troubleshoot issues and improve Phil. These logs contain no personal identifier data and are automatically deleted after 15 days.
Secure analytics copy: An internal, access-controlled SQL database holds the same desensitized logs so our data team can create usage dashboards. (We are migrating this dataset into our secure data vault environment to streamline reporting.)
After these time frames expire, data is permanently deleted unless we preserve specific entries to investigate a client-reported issue or comply with the law.
Does OpenAI retain my data and questions?
No. Under our Azure OpenAI Service agreement:
OpenAI does not store your prompts and Phil’s answers for model training or any other purpose.
Microsoft Azure simply provides a secure compute environment; it cannot view or reuse your data.
For additional details, see the Azure OpenAI Service privacy and security documentation, which is part of our contract: Data, privacy, and security for Azure OpenAI Service - Azure AI services | Microsoft Learn
What happens if someone types personal or sensitive information into Phil?
Phil is designed for business research, not for processing personal data. Nevertheless:
All traffic is encrypted in transit and at rest.
Logged questions are stripped of any obvious personal identifiers before they leave the application layer.
Azure OpenAI Service does not receive or store customer data.
These controls, combined with regular penetration tests and Enterprise-grade monitoring, make a data leak extremely unlikely. Even so, we advise users not to enter sensitive or personal information.
Can my organization’s administrator see what I asked?
No. IBISWorld does not provide administrators with access to individual chat histories or transcripts tied to named users.
For account management and license-renewal discussions, IBISWorld may share aggregated insights (for example, “top topics asked this quarter” or representative question themes). These insights:
Are not linked to individual users
Do not include personal identifiers
Are used solely to illustrate overall usage patterns and product adoption
We do not provide full chat transcripts tied to individual names and individual user identities are not visible in Phil AI usage reporting.
Does IBISWorld use my data to train Phil or any other AI models?
No. Phil runs on fully trained models hosted in Azure OpenAI Service. IBISWorld does not use your questions or any other data to train Phil or any other AI models. Your questions are not shared with OpenAI or any third party for model improvement.
How does IBISWorld handle data security and privacy in relation to AI? How can I be confident our data is secure and aligns with relevant regulations (e.g., GDPR, CCPA)?
Phil AI is designed with privacy-by-design principles. We minimize data collection, restrict access, and separate short-term operational logs from longer-term, anonymized analytics used for quality assurance and product improvement.
Safeguard | What it means for you |
Short-term operational retention | Phil temporarily stores recent prompts and system logs to support in-session continuity, troubleshooting, and service reliability. These logs are automatically deleted after a short period (e.g., session memory within 24 hours; operational logs 15 days). |
Longer-term anonymized analytics | IBISWorld retains a de-identified and anonymized copy of Phil prompts for product analytics, quality assurance, and usage reporting. These records cannot be linked back to individual users and exclude personal identifiers. |
User identity protection | After the short-term operational period, user-level identifiers are hidden. Long-term analytics may reference the client organization and interaction date, but not individual users. |
Encryption | TLS 1.2+ for data in transit; AES-256 for data at rest. |
Regional hosting & access controls | All systems reside in IBISWorld’s secure cloud environment, with access restricted to vetted staff under role-based permissions. |
Regular audits & testing | Independent security reviews, vulnerability scans and penetration tests verify our controls. |
Data-subject rights | On request, we can export or delete any log entry that can be linked back to you, in line with GDPR/CCPA requirements. |
These measures let us meet—or exceed—the standards set by GDPR (EU), CCPA (US), the Australian Privacy Act and other regional regulations.
Accuracy
How accurate are Phil’s answers?
Any data points or trends Phil generates are as accurate as the source information in the Procurement Report or SupplierIQ Profile. However, we can't guarantee the accuracy of Phil's output because the output is provided by a 3rd party Large Language Model (OpenAI) through a typical “Retrieval-Augmented Generation” or “RAG” framework. Our Product and Technology teams regularly review answers to questions that our customers ask Phil.
If Phil provides responses that contradict the report, should I trust Phil or the report?
Since Phil is designed to only generate answers using information directly from our reports, it's unlikely you will encounter a discrepancy between Phil's answer and a report. Should a discrepancy occur, however, the source of truth will always be the Procurement Report or SupplierIQ Profile.
How accurate are Phil’s calculations?
We have not trained Phil on our preferred methods for calculating ratios, forecasts or mathematical equations. As such, we can't guarantee the accuracy of Phil's calculations or confirm the equations that Phil uses to produce results. If you use Phil for calculations, we encourage you to ask for his methodology. For example:
Phil for Academics
How can Phil help students?
Students can use Phil to:
Quickly locate industry facts and figures in Procurement reports
Reframe data into summaries, outlines or comparative points for presentations
Explore how industries are affected by macroeconomic or social drivers
Prepare for interviews, career fairs or business presentations
Can Phil be used to write essays or assignments from scratch?
No. Phil cannot generate a full essay or assignment. Phil can only access the insights in IBISWorld’s platform, not the broader web, and thus cannot synthesize multiple sources to create a college-level essay. Moreover, Phil’s responses are capped at 1,000 words, making him unfit for crafting complete essays for students. Instead, Phil is designed to help students, professors and career services staff find, summarize and reframe industry data from IBISWorld reports. Students still need to apply their own analysis, critical thinking and academic writing.
Can professors and career coaches use Phil too?
Yes. Phil is a valuable AI tool for career advisors, librarians and other faculty. Phil can help workshop your lessons, offer supporting data points and research, and help brainstorm questions for guided discussion groups and other classroom activities.
Is there a limit to how much I can use Phil?
Yes, each academic account is allowed 1,000 questions per month. The limit resets on the first of each month. Unused questions do not roll over to the next month.
Does Phil replace traditional research skills?
No. Phil accelerates the process of finding information but does not replace critical research and evaluation. Students should use Phil to supplement, not substitute, their ability to interpret and apply data.
Does using Phil violate academic integrity or AI use policies?
Phil only pulls from IBISWorld's licensed Procurement research—it does not scrape the internet or generate unverified content. Whether Phil can be used for coursework depends on each institution’s policies on AI tools. Students should check with their professors or academic integrity office before incorporating Phil into graded work.
Can I cite Phil in my academic work?
Students should cite IBISWorld or Procurement reports, not Phil directly, since Phil’s answers always link back to specific report sections.
What if my university bans AI tools?
Universities vary in how they regulate AI. Since Phil only synthesizes from IBISWorld’s proprietary Procurement research (and not the open web), it is closer to a smart search assistant than a generative writing tool. Still, if your institution has strict rules against AI, you should confirm with your professor or librarian before using Phil.
Can I disable Phil for my institution?
Yes. University account administrators can request that Phil be disabled on specific licenses if needed.
How is Phil different from general-purpose AI tools like ChatGPT?
Unlike ChatGPT, which can pull from a wide range of sources, Phil is restricted to IBISWorld's Procurement curated reports and analyst insights. This ensures students and faculty are working with reliable, citable and academically rigorous information.
Does Phil encourage plagiarism?
No. Since Phil summarizes from IBISWorld’s reports and always cites the relevant section, it functions more like a research assistant than a ghostwriter. Students should still write in their own words and follow their school’s rules on citations and AI use.
Support
Can I report errors?
You can click the thumbs up and thumbs down feedback options in the Phil interface to let us know whether you like or dislike the response. We will use your feedback to improve Phil.
How can we share feedback on Phil?
You can share any feedback on Phil with your Client Relationship Manager.
We may also ask for your feedback through a survey on the IBISWorld platform or via email. Your input helps us identify trends and areas for improvement so we can provide you with a more useful and effective tool.
For additional questions regarding Phil or IBISWorld.AI, please contact your Client Relationship Manager.