By Andy Barraclough, CEO, Voxpopme
AI is everywhere. Data is abundant. So, what’s next? Here are my predictions for what will happen to enterprise insight teams in 2026 – and what it means for the leaders navigating what comes next.
Four trends defining the next chapter for insight professionals
For the past two years, the insights industry has been consumed by a single question: Are you using AI yet? That question is now irrelevant. Nearly every team has adopted it. The real question in 2026 is whether AI adoption has actually made your organization smarter, faster or more decisive.
Now in its third year, Voxpopme's State of Insights examines the forces reshaping how enterprise teams translate customer intelligence into action. This year's conversation centers on four trends that will define the next chapter for insight professionals: AI becoming table stakes; a renewed focus on outcomes and impact; the rise of strategic tool consolidation; and a once-in-a-generation career opportunity for those still in the game.
Here's what the data says – and why it matters.
AI is table stakes. The question now is what you do with it.
The adoption debate is over.
According to McKinsey's 2025 State of AI survey, 88% of organizations report using AI in at least one business function, up from 78% the year prior. Deloitte's State of AI in the Enterprise report adds further context: worker access to AI rose 50% in 2025, and the number of companies with 40% or more AI projects in production is expected to double within six months.
The gap is no longer between teams that use AI and those that don't. It's between those with a clear AI strategy and those still figuring it out.
But here's the uncomfortable truth buried in that momentum: just 34% of leaders surveyed by Deloitte say they're truly reimagining their business with AI. Most are still using it to do the same things faster, not to do fundamentally different things. And within insight teams, those who are relying on basic AI functionalities are more likely to lose organizational influence than those embracing purpose-built AI capabilities.
The takeaway is clear. Having AI is no longer a competitive advantage. Knowing how to deploy it with strategic intent is what separates leaders from everyone else. As Insight Partners noted in its 2026 outlook, "The defining advantage of 2026 is not access to AI, but the ability to deploy it with intent."
The return to impact and outcomes
Starting in mid-2024 and running through 2025, the insights industry was flooded with new technology. Startups and incumbents alike raced to ship AI-powered features. But once everyone has the same tools, what's next? Leadership teams aren't evaluating their insight functions based on how many AI tools they've adopted. They're asking a more fundamental question: What decisions did your work actually impact?
This is a shift back to fundamentals – and the data supports it. Gartner's enterprise software forecast, reported by SaaStr, found that 54% of IT leaders are now focusing AI investments specifically on projects with "attainable results and foreseeable cost savings." Not transformation for transformation's sake. Measurable outcomes.
Qualtrics’ research reinforces this at the team level. Seventy-two percent of research teams using advanced AI capabilities – including synthetic responses, agentic AI and conversational analytics – report that their organizations depend on research significantly more than a year ago. That increased reliance translates directly into budget gains. Meanwhile, 37% of teams still operating with traditional approaches report flat or declining demand for their work.
The insight industry analyst firm Shapiro+Raj captured this evolution well: "The future belongs to those who can evolve from project vendors into true strategic partners, delivering continuous value through sustained collaboration." Success in 2026 isn't about delivering reports. It's about revealing customer truth, formulating direction and producing measurable business impact. This is a golden age for insight leaders willing to step into the role of trusted advisor.
Consolidation as a unifying catalyst
Tool consolidation is coming fast – and it's a good thing.
A TechCrunch survey of 24 enterprise-focused VCs found an overwhelming consensus: enterprises will increase AI budgets in 2026, but concentrate that spend on fewer vendors. As Andrew Ferguson of Databricks Ventures put it, "Enterprises are testing multiple tools for a single-use case, and there's an explosion of startups focused on certain buying centers. As enterprises see real proof points from AI, they'll cut out some of the experimentation budget, rationalize overlapping tools and deploy that savings into the AI technologies that have delivered."
Harsha Kapre of Snowflake Ventures echoed this, telling TechCrunch that CIOs are "actively reducing SaaS sprawl and moving toward unified, intelligent systems that lower integration costs and deliver measurable ROI."
For insight leaders trying to protect or grow their budgets, this trend draws a hard line. Research products and partners that tie directly to strategic outcomes and business decisions will command – and deserve – larger budgets. Tools that can't demonstrate clear ROI will be cut. Gartner's data shows enterprise software spending will grow 15.2% in 2026, but a significant portion of that increase simply offsets price increases on existing contracts. The winners will be platforms that prove indispensable to decision-making, not just efficient at data collection.
For organizations sitting on terabytes of customer intelligence, consolidation isn't just a cost exercise. It's a unifying catalyst. When customer signals from video feedback, survey data, interview transcripts and behavioral analytics live in one place, the multiplier effect is enormous. An entire organization empowered with centralized, accessible customer truth becomes a force multiplier for the business.
The career opportunity hiding in plain sight
The last couple of years have been brutal for the research industry. According to data compiled by Layoffs.fyi, over 152,000 technology workers were laid off in 2024, with an additional 123,000 in 2025. The World Economic Forum reports that 41% of employers worldwide expect to reduce their workforces over the next five years due to AI. Market research hasn't been immune to these forces.
But for those who are still in the game, the opportunity has never been larger. And the data backs this up on multiple fronts.
First, AI skills are commanding a significant premium. Lightcast research reported by Fortune found that non-tech job postings requiring AI skills offer salaries 28% higher on average – nearly $18,000 more per year. More than half of all jobs requesting AI skills in 2024 appeared outside the tech sector, a radical reversal from prior years. For insight professionals who can combine deep domain expertise with AI fluency, the career leverage is substantial.
Second, the shift from tool-operator to strategic advisor is accelerating. The Qualtrics data shows that as AI agents handle more routine research execution, researchers are being repositioned as strategic advisors within their organizations. Eighty-four percent of teams actively using agentic AI report significantly higher efficiency, freeing capacity for higher-value strategic work.
Third, the professionals who return to solid fundamentals – customer truth, evidence-based storytelling, decision confidence – while leveraging AI as operational leverage are in the strongest position. Mobas, a UK research consultancy, framed it this way in their 2026 outlook: insight teams "are no longer passive observers of market reality; they are engines of foresight, resilience, alignment and transformation."
The formula is straightforward. Go back to the roots. Become the voice that leadership depends on. Show them what's possible when an organization truly understands its customers, sees market reality clearly and can identify future horizons. Then find a research partner who won't just deliver on short-term needs but will train and prepare your team to use AI as long-term career leverage.
What comes next
These four trends – AI as baseline, outcomes over outputs, strategic consolidation and career reinvention – aren't independent forces. They reinforce each other. When AI becomes table stakes, the differentiator shifts to impact. When impact drives budgets, consolidation follows. And when the landscape settles, the professionals who invested in both fundamentals and AI fluency find themselves in a position they haven't occupied in years: indispensable.
The State of Insights 2026 webinar on March 11, 2026, will explore each of these trends in depth. No demos. No sales pitch. Just a conversation about where enterprise decision-making is heading – and how customer intelligence leaders can prepare for what's next.
Register for the State of Insights 2026.
About Voxpopme
Voxpopme partners with enterprise leaders to transform customer signals into strategic impact. We help Fortune 500 companies in CPG, technology, consumer electronics, restaurants and food and beverage to reveal market realities, unlock competitive advantage and propel innovation strategies. Our customer intelligence platform delivers the clarity that leaders need to fuel measurable outcomes, define success and shape new markets. To learn more, visit www.voxpopme.com.