Central Government Department Measures ‘Impossible’ Sector
The Geospatial Commission, established by the UK Government, aims to harness the potential of location data to drive economic growth. Recognizing that the geospatial market functions as a diverse ecosystem with offerings across multiple sectors rather than as a traditional industry, the Commission faced significant challenges in accurately measuring the market's size, value, and impact.
Traditional methods struggled to accurately identify companies within the geospatial market, so the Geospatial Commission engaged Frontier Economics and Glass.AI to explore an alternative approach. The team leveraged Glass.AI's artificial intelligence technology to analyse the digital footprint of businesses online. This technology utilised and cross-referenced publicly available sources—ranging from company websites and social media to industry reports and open government data—to identify organisations reliant on geospatial data.
Through an iterative process enriched by human feedback and supported by transparent provenance, the market definition was refined, distinguishing relevant businesses such as those using drones for agricultural surveys, from those in unrelated fields like leisure. This robust approach culminated in the identification of approximately 2,000 companies within the geospatial sector, revealing a market valued at over £6 billion and employing more than 115,000 people.
This case exemplifies how Digital Econometric techniques, powered by AI, can define complex markets, offering comprehensive, verifiable insights that traditional methods might miss.
