stop playing small

How besieged Insights, Research, and Intelligence pros can exit the death spiral

There’s a moment — rare, uncomfortable, necessary — when a profession realizes it is under siege. For the Insights, Research, and Intelligence (I’ll refer to it as “IRI”) profession, that moment is now.

Not because AI is "coming someday."
Not because budgets are "tightening a little."

But because, today, the profession is being outflanked: by AI, by global offshoring of talent, by enterprise leadership that no longer sees intelligence as a strategic driver.

And most dangerously?
By our own stagnation.

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The Quiet Decline

Look around. Conferences focused on the IRI field once bristled with energy — shaping strategy, steering investments, protecting futures.

Now?

Attendance has thinned (SCIP, TMRE, Quirks, ESOMAR, and the rest—and TBH many have gone out of business)

Roles have shrunk.

The conversation recycles itself each year:
"How do we get a seat at the table?"
”How do I demonstrate my value?”
”How do I protect my budget?”

The brutal truth is that many executives see IRI functions as a “nice to have,” not a “must-have.”

Because too much of the work has calcified around activities and processes instead of outcomes. Too many are still measuring worth by inputs — not by strategic moves accelerated, threats neutralized, markets seized.

Meanwhile, outside our walls, AI is not debating whether it can replace humans. It is doing it. Startups, hedge funds, national security agencies — they are weaponizing AI to collapse decision cycles, spot vulnerabilities faster, and reshape the board before we finish our “win-loss” analysis or qual/quant study.

And no — your industry is not immune.
Industrial firms. CPG firms. Healthcare firms. Technology firms. The IRI groups within most large enterprises have fallen behind.

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The Dangerous Comfort of Complacency

You’ll hear the soothing voices:
"Human judgment can never be replaced."
"AI needs validation."

They're not wrong.
But they are dangerous.

Because what they offer is comfort, not survival.
And comfort may be a death sentence.

The professionals who survive — and thrive — will not be those clinging to human exclusivity and superiority.

They will be those who become force multipliers:
Using AI not as a crutch, but as a conductor uses an orchestra.
Extracting clarity from chaos.
Shaping strategy faster and sharper than any competitor.

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Three Shifts to Win the Future

The IRI leader no longer has the luxury of being measured by how much information they gather.

They are being judged by how deeply they influence the outcomes of their business.

Enterprise leaders and those who control our budgets expect us to make three irreversible shifts:

1. From Collectors to Strategic Sensemakers
   In a world drowning in data, filtering, connecting, and framing signals into clarity is the real currency. Not the # of slides in a deck, or the number of interviews conducted or survey responses collected. But a sharp, brutal, framing of reality.

2. From Reporters to Catalysts of Decisions
   Success will not be about reporting facts. It will be about how many decisions you accelerate. The deliverable is the conviction that you deliver to management so that they feel the pressure to act and the clarity of how to do it.

3. From Analysts to Leadership Enablers
   Intelligence professionals must move beyond collection and delivery. They must amplify leadership judgment. Directly enable market share gains. Faster time-to-market. Competitive Disruption. Creation of enterprise value.

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Your Blueprint: Five Moves to Make Now

If you want to thrive, not survive, here’s the blueprint:

• Elevate Your Lens
  Think beyond decks and reports. Frame intelligence in terms of competitive moves and strategic outcomes.

• Orchestrate AI, Don’t Just Use It
  AI is an instrument, not a crutch. Design the scaffolding. Shape the prompts. Translate outputs into decisive action.

• Speak to Outcomes, Not Activities
  Executives don't care how many sources you cited. They care about how much faster they can move and how much market share they can steal.

• Leverage True Expertise
  Hire — or become — the kind of professional who drives real strategic outcomes. Deliver that value, and charge accordingly.

• Stop Playing Small
  If your organization or industry can’t see the value you’re building, find one that can. There are firms — hedge funds, PE shops, hypergrowth tech players — that are hungry for force multipliers.

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A Final Word

We are standing at a once-in-a-generation inflection point.

IRI professionals can rise — or they can fade away quietly.
The difference won’t be the technology.
It will be the vision we choose to claim.

If you’re reading this today, you’re one of those who can, if you choose, reshape the trajectory of your company, of your industry, and possibly beyond.

The future belongs to the force multipliers.
The future belongs to the bold.

This article is based on the keynote talk I delivered at SCIP today.

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If this resonated and you’re open to working with someone who can help you 1) think this through 2) elevate your function to indispensability and 3) deliver a huge ROI, ping me for a chat.

On the other hand, if you’re looking for firms that are capable data-point collectors at a low cost per unit, here are some directories of B2B research firms and consultants to look through. Quirks. Esomar. Greenbook. You won’t find us listed there.

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Adil Husain has over two decades of experience advising Fortune 1000 firms on strategy, market intelligence and global expansion. Having lived and worked in the U.S., and China for a decade each, he brings a unique perspective on how U.S. businesses can best succeed both domestically and internationally. Adil is the Managing Director of Emerging Strategy, a global strategic intelligence firm that helps enterprises navigate complex markets.

You can contact Adil here, subscribe to this newsletter, or connect with him on LinkedIn.

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