# What is Argus?

Explains where to open Argus, SCL's AI research assistant, what it does and doesn't do, how it relates to the New Research wizard and how it uses credits.

Argus is SCL's AI research assistant. You type your business question into the conversation; Argus turns it into a research method, prepares the population and the study, starts it with your approval and reads the results for you. It also does desk research on the Turkish market and can turn the findings into a report or a presentation.

## Opening Argus

There are two ways to open Argus. Either way, it is the same assistant doing the same work.

- **Argus page:** In the sidebar's **WORKFLOW** group, click the **Argus** item with the **AI** badge. The page opens with the heading "What … today?" and the **Tell me what you want to research…** box. Every time you click this item, even when you're already on the Argus page, a new conversation opens; your previous conversation stays in the **Conversations** list.
- **Argus button:** Every page except the Argus page has a round button in its bottom-right corner. Click it or press Ctrl + J (⌘ + J on Mac); Argus opens in a floating window over the page. You can start with one of the starter questions: **What can I do on this page?**, **Summarize the results** or **What does this data say?**.

If you have a study running, the button shows that study's name and progress, and clicking it opens the progress screen. In that case, open Argus with the keyboard shortcut. On the study's progress screen, the button reads **Ask Argus about this run**.

Open past conversations from the **Conversations** link at the top right of the Argus page. Argus replies in the language of your last message, Turkish or English. File attachments, conversation history and using the window are covered in [Working with Argus](/en/docs/argus/working-with-argus).

## What Argus does

### Turns your question into a study

Describe your product, your target audience and the decision you need to make. Argus picks the method that fits the question: for example, Price Analysis (WTP) for a pricing question, Competitive Analysis (Conjoint) for preference against competitors, or Priority Ranking (MaxDiff) for which features matter most. If a piece of information is missing, it asks a short question; it can also show the answer options as clickable chips. If you write "suggest one" or "you choose", it makes the decision itself and tells you what it chose.

### Sets up populations and studies

Argus prepares a population from your target audience and a draft study from your question. The drafts appear in the conversation as **Population draft** and **Survey design** cards. If you don't provide details such as price points or question wording, Argus decides them.

If a study of the same type for the same product has been run in your organisation in the last 180 days, Argus tells you first. It starts a new paid study only if you ask it to.

Argus can set up every method in General Research. Multiple-Choice Survey, Price Analysis, Feature Price Impact (shown as **Feature Value Analysis** on the design and report screens) and Real-Time Focus Group are set up inside the conversation. For Competitive Analysis, Priority Ranking and Comparison, Argus fills in the pages of the **New Research** wizard for you, step by step. Ad Test isn't available in General Research; Argus sets it up in the Ad Testing vertical.

### Starts with your approval

Before every paid or irreversible step, an approval card appears above the message box. For example, you see the **Create the population** card before a population is created and the **Launch the study** card before a study starts. For Fashion and Ad Testing studies that Argus starts from the conversation, the card's **Credits to spend** line shows the estimated cost; cards for General Research studies don't have this line.

The step runs only when you click **Approve** or **Approve and launch**. The **Not now** button closes the card.

> [!WARNING]
> The bottom of the card reads "Runs as soon as you approve; it cannot be cancelled." Before you approve, check the credits line, if there is one, and the product and audience details shown on the card.

When **Autopilot** is on, paid steps run without showing an approval card. For details, see [Approvals and Autopilot](/en/docs/argus/approvals-and-autopilot).

While a study is running, you can close the conversation or the browser tab. Argus lets you know in the same conversation when the population is ready and when the study is complete.

### Reads results

Argus reads the results of studies you set up with the wizard as well as those it set up itself. It summarises results, breaks a question down by a dimension such as age, gender, socio-economic status (SES) or income group, and compares two studies of the same type. It can also show results in the conversation as a chart or a table. For many methods, it gives you a link to the Excel file with the raw data.

### Does desk research

Desk research means gathering information that already exists about the market. Argus searches the web. It scans supermarket shelf prices in Türkiye, online price ranges, news, search interest in brands, consumer complaints and forum opinions, and summarises the findings in its reply. Data such as prices and news is cached for a while; if you want the most up-to-date data, say so explicitly in your message.

### Remembers context

Argus remembers the information you give it and the decisions it makes throughout a conversation. In later conversations, it also uses the lasting facts you tell it and the brand, product and audience details from cards you've approved. Your brands, product categories, preferred verticals, line of business and default target audience are shared with your organisation; your research language and reporting style are stored for you only.

If you ask Argus to forget something, it deletes it. For questions like "What did we find last time?", it searches and reads your past conversations.

### Prepares reports and presentations

Argus can prepare a presentation file from the studies it has read in the conversation. The file is PPTX by default; you can also get it as PDF or DOCX.

When you ask for a strategy, or when your question needs more than one study, Argus runs a research programme. The programme has four stages: desk research, a plan of 2–4 strategic questions, the studies that answer those questions and a strategy report that brings them all together. For details, see [Strategy reports and presentations](/en/docs/argus/strategy-reports).

## What Argus doesn't do

- While **Autopilot** is off, it doesn't create populations or start studies without your approval.
- It can't cancel a study that has started.
- It can't buy credits; you make purchases yourself.
- It can't upload a video file for an Ad Test. It works with a public YouTube link or the video from a previously uploaded Ad Test.
- It declines requests unrelated to market research and SCL (writing code, homework, general writing, translation), saying they are "outside my market-research scope".
- It doesn't reach real consumers. Studies that Argus sets up are also answered by synthetic consumers (personas); the results are model output. For details, see [Accuracy and limitations](/en/docs/getting-started/accuracy-and-limitations).

## Argus and the New Research wizard

Argus isn't a separate system; it uses the same populations, studies and reports as the **New Research** wizard. Populations that Argus creates appear in the **Populations** library, and reports for the studies it completes appear on the **Reports** page. You can also use the two together: set up a study with the wizard and ask Argus about its results, or have Argus fill in the form that's open in the wizard, in the window you open with the Argus button.

| Topic | **New Research** wizard | Argus |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Setup | You fill in the vertical, method, population and design steps. | You write your request; Argus decides or asks about the details you leave out. |
| Starting | You start the study at the last step of the wizard. | You click **Approve and launch** on the approval card. |
| Results | **Reports** page | **Reports** page; plus summaries, breakdowns, charts and tables in the conversation |
| Best for | When you want to set every field yourself | When you're unsure about the method, want to run several steps in one go or want to explore the results by asking questions |

## Credits and usage limit

- Chatting with Argus and having it read results, do desk research and prepare charts, reports and presentations doesn't spend credits.
- Credits are spent on the studies Argus starts; creating a population doesn't spend credits. The **Credits to spend** line on the approval card and the **Total estimate** amount on the plan card are estimates; the credits deducted may differ. How credits are calculated for each method is explained in [Credits](/en/docs/account/credits).
- In a research programme, approving the plan doesn't spend credits; each study in the plan needs its own approval.
- Argus doesn't always compare your balance with the study's cost before starting it. A study can be started even if your balance isn't enough; in that case the study fails without producing any responses, no credits are deducted, and Argus tells you what happened. For details, see [Approvals and Autopilot](/en/docs/argus/approvals-and-autopilot).
- Argus has a daily usage limit per user. When you reach it, you see a warning; the limit resets every day at 03:00 Türkiye time.

## Example first messages

| Goal | Example message |
| --- | --- |
| Set up a price study | "Set up a 300-person price study for our new 500 ml cold coffee. The target audience is people aged 18–35 living in big cities. I want to test prices between ₺40 and ₺80." |
| Get a method recommendation | "Which feature should we highlight on our new protein bar? First, suggest which method we should use to measure this." |
| Read results | "Summarise the results of my most recently completed study and break down question 1 by income group." |
| Compare two studies | "Compare our two multiple-choice studies from March and September. Which result changed the most?" |
| Get desk research | "What are shelf prices and consumer complaints like for plant-based milk in supermarkets?" |
| Ask for a strategy | "Prepare a launch strategy for the new cat food we're bringing out." |

> [!TIP]
> A good first message includes the product (with its pack size), the brand, the target audience and the decision you need to make. A message can be up to 5,000 characters. Rather than pasting in longer text, attach it as a file.

## Related pages

- [Working with Argus](/en/docs/argus/working-with-argus)
- [Approvals and Autopilot](/en/docs/argus/approvals-and-autopilot)
- [Strategy reports and presentations](/en/docs/argus/strategy-reports)
- [Choosing the right method](/en/docs/research/choosing-a-method)
- [Accuracy and limitations](/en/docs/getting-started/accuracy-and-limitations)