By Aneesh Dhawan, co-founder and CEO, Knit
I’m Aneesh Dhawan, CEO of Knit. Too often, enterprise organizations invest heavily in data and research – but let that hard-won treasure gather digital dust. It’s time to shine a light on what most businesses leave unused – and show how purposeful storytelling and smart data activation can turn dormant insights into strategic gold.
The hidden epidemic: Research data that goes unused
A costly reality
Recent studies show just how widespread the issue is:
- 80% of companies say data goes unused to some degree, and on average, a full third (33%) of data is never acted on. Even worse, 98% admit to data silos – and 75% say at least half of their data is siloed and inaccessible (Wakefield Research).
- 30-40% of enterprise reports add little or no value, according to McKinsey, often duplicative or ignored (McKinsey). This means the effort of producing research doesn’t always translate into impact.
- Market researchers themselves acknowledge the problem: insights frequently “collect dust” because organizations lack the resources or systems to activate them (dscout).
- A recent article in Research World highlights the hidden cost of unused research – duplicate studies, forgotten data sets and millions wasted in underutilized insights (Research World).
Put simply: enterprises aren’t suffering from a lack of data. They’re suffering from an inability to activate, share and story tell that data in ways that drive action.
Why insights get stuck
So why do valuable research findings so often fail to see the light of day?
- Silos and accessibility gaps
Even when teams want to use past research, they can’t always find it. With silos reported by 98% of companies, data is often scattered, making insights invisible. - Reports that don’t land
McKinsey’s findings that up to 40% of reports add little value underline a painful truth: research may be technically delivered, but it’s not crafted into narratives that resonate with decision makers. - Obsolescence and relevance decay
Research has a shelf life. In some organizations, studies are outdated before they’re ever socialized broadly, meaning fresh insights are quickly seen as stale. In academia, data availability itself declines by 17% per year after publication (arxiv) – a stark analogy for how fast insights slip away. - Organizational bandwidth
Even when insights exist, teams often lack the resources to translate them into action. As one researcher put it: “People do read and talk about your research, but don’t have the resources or understanding to bring those insights into the company” (dscout).
What it means: Costs and consequences
- Financial waste
Market research costs $20-50K per study. When unused, this easily translates to millions in wasted spend annually, especially for large organizations Market Logic. - Slower decisions
When old reports gather dust, organizations resort to commissioning new studies. This delays decision-making and risks losing ground to faster-moving competitors. - Knowledge loss
Valuable findings disappear over time, as researchers move on, reports go missing and institutional memory fades. Without activation, data becomes corporate amnesia. - Missed opportunities and stale decisions
With insights out of reach, firms risk poor decisions, missed innovations and duplicated research efforts. - Security and regulatory risk
Lost visibility equals lost control. Forgotten data repositories are unmanaged and vulnerable – an increasingly attractive target for cyberattacks TechRadar. - Sustainability drag
Stored, unused data drains energy and increases carbon footprint – data that never contributed to insight still contributes to waste.
A story: The research that almost stayed buried
Picture a consumer brand that ran a global survey on shopping behavior. The findings included a key signal – customers were frustrated by shipping delays, and competitors were winning with more transparent delivery promises. But that insight was never socialized widely. Six months later, the company lost market share and leadership spent another $100,000 on a new survey – unaware the answer was already sitting in their drive.
That’s the silent cost of research that isn’t activated. Insights unshared are opportunities lost.
Now, imagine a different reality. With a platform that ingests that survey, auto-analyzes its quant and qual inputs, and transforms the report into a compelling narrative – immediately shareable across teams. That brand doesn't just know what customers think – they can act on it fast, across departments, with clarity and speed.
Enter Knit: Bridging the gap between data and decision
At Knit, we’ve built capabilities designed to solve exactly these problems:
- Effortless data upload and activation
Whether your data comes from external surveys, partner-run research or legacy studies, Knit’s data upload capability ensures that nothing valuable gets left behind goknit.com. - Automated quantitative and qualitative analysis
Knit processes both numbers and narratives rapidly – extracting insights without manual wrangling goknit.com. - AI-generated reporting
Instead of reports that gather dust, Knit delivers human-centered, actionable stories – bringing insight to life within a day goknit.com. - Seamless collaboration
Invite your team to collaborate – everyone sees insights in context, unifying knowledge and making past data instantly operational goknit.com. - Insight storytelling that connects
We don’t just surface insights – we craft them into stories that move people, spark action and drive decisions.
Conclusion: From dormant data to dynamic decision-making
The data enterprises already have is often their most valuable. Yet due to accessibility hurdles, format friction, governance gaps and resource constraints, most of it stays unused. That’s a silent efficiency drain – and also a massive missed opportunity.
At Knit, we believe organizations deserve better. Our platform revives, analyzes and story-tells insights – quickly and collaboratively – so enterprises can stop repeating research and start acting on what they already know.
If you’re ready to transform your latent insights into lived decisions, let's connect. The next great idea might already be inside your data – just waiting to be told.
— Aneesh Dhawan, CEO, Knit