Expert Network Industry Trends in 2025

Expert networks refer to businesses that connect companies with expert resources or subject matter experts (SMEs). These industry experts range from former C-level executives to a company’s customers and provide valuable and current information, data, or assistance.

Since 2015, the expert network industry has grown by an average of 18% annually, even during and after the COVID-19 pandemic, and is projected to continue expanding at double-digit rates through the decade.

At the same time, the industry has undergone a period of transformation, particularly in the last few years. Technology, namely artificial intelligence, has brought new possibilities to the expert network space, changing how these networks operate and how users engage with them.

The user base of expert networks is rapidly expanding as more professionals across industries recognize the value of on-demand expertise and access to specialized knowledge. Competition in the space has been heating up as new entrants emerge and legacy players expand their offerings. Finally, regulatory scrutiny and compliance are playing increasingly large roles in how expert networks operate around the world.

By leveraging insights from the AlphaSense platform, we dive into the top trends you can expect to unfold in the expert network market this year and beyond.

Evolution of Expert Networks

In many ways, the expert network industry has been in a state of evolution ever since its inception in the early 2000s. But in the last few years, the pace of change has increased, and both legacy players and new entrants are embracing new modus operandi that enable them to grow and remain competitive.

In 2025, it has become more common for expert networks to offer additional content sets beyond just expert call transcripts. Conducting research with both expert calls and other premium content sources is instrumental for investors and corporate professionals. The ability to combine both primary and secondary sources allows for deeper investment and market research. That’s why AlphaSense offers a premium and proprietary library of hundreds of thousands of expert call transcripts, alongside a vast content universe encompassing broker reports, company documents, news, and internal research.

Additionally, expert networks are expanding into new client segments as more corporate and consulting professionals recognize the value of in-depth, firsthand insights that their competitors cannot easily obtain. Originally serving private equity firms and hedge funds primarily, expert networks have become key resources for consulting and corporate strategy professionals to gain valuable perspectives that enhance strategic planning and decision-making.

Corporations also rely on expert networks now for competitive intelligence and market research to gain insights about their competitors straight from former executives, customers, or partners. Additionally, smaller enterprises and startups leverage them to gain high-level expertise that may otherwise have been inaccessible due to smaller budgets in order to innovate better and scale effectively.

Intensified Competition in the Expert Network Market

The expert network industry has grown significantly over the last couple decades, and with very low barriers to entry for this market, new entrants are constantly emerging. Thus, legacy firms can no longer rely on brand reputation alone as a differentiator and must adjust their pricing and improve quality to remain competitive.

So how are expert network companies differentiating themselves in 2025? There is a growing demand for specialized expertise in niche industries and emerging technologies, so some expert networks that specialize in only one or a few key areas are surfacing in the market. One example is Inlightened — an expert network specializing in connecting clients with healthcare and life sciences professionals.

Many expert networks are increasingly integrating their services with enterprise platforms and business intelligence tools to fit more seamlessly into users’ research workflows. Another recent trend is the emergence of expert network marketplaces, such as Inex One, that allow users to access multiple expert networks in one place — multiplying the insights and value they can glean.

Finally, expert networks are embracing new technologies like artificial intelligence and moving away from traditional phone-based consultations in favor of digital-based platforms. This digital expansion has allowed expert networks to broaden the scope of their network reach globally and streamline access to experts for users.

Artificial Intelligence Adoption in Expert Networks 

As demand for expertise has increased in recent years, more expert networks and market intelligence platforms are integrating sophisticated technologies, like artificial intelligence, to better serve clients’ needs and remain competitive.

Unlike traditional expert network services, AI works 24/7 across all time zones and industries to identify, qualify, and segment experts for engagement. This capability allows AI-driven expert networks to build large, high-quality databases more efficiently than a standard model that relies on humans to search for experts and add them to a database manually.

AI is used to match users with experts more effectively, instantly summarize and extract critical insights from expert calls, and automate market research workflows. AI can complete manual tasks such as expert vetting, compliance monitoring, and scheduling in seconds, freeing up human resources for higher-value tasks like strategy and analysis.

With over 10 years of investment in AI technology, AlphaSense’s award-winning AI aggregates an entire content universe to provide instant insights at your fingertips and shorten time to decision.

AlphaSense cuts the time spent on research from hours to seconds by streamlining the process of finding and accessing the right transcripts. This efficiency boost accelerates the research process and allows analysts to focus on more strategic decision-making, thereby enhancing overall productivity and efficiency.

By leveraging the following AI-driven research tools in the AlphaSense platform, users can quickly traverse our extensive expert transcript library and gain instant insights:

• Smart Summaries – Enables users to glean expert insights in an instant with generative AI (genAI) summaries that capture the gist of any expert call transcript found within the extensive AlphaSense library in seconds.
• Generative Search – Allows users to have their questions answered in real time with our AI-powered chatbot designed to summarize billions of data points from our platform and get you from question to answer, faster — with citations to exact snippets for easy verification.
• Generative Grid – Enables users to apply multiple genAI prompts at scale on numerous documents simultaneously to quickly provide organized answers to research questions in an easy-to-read table format.
• Sentiment Analysis – Allows users to analyze the language nuances and tone within expert transcripts by using a boolean operator to search for mentions of a specific topic in a positive, negative, or neutral light.
• Smart Synonyms™ –  Empowers users to expand keyword and thematic searches to deliver the most relevant expert insights by including all synonyms, excluding irrelevant results, and filtering out the noise.

These powerful AI-search tools accelerate the entire research process by eliminating time-consuming, manual tasks in your primary investment research.

Regulatory and Compliance Challenges in Expert Networks

As expert networks become more numerous and more ubiquitous in the workflows of professionals across industries, the regulatory and compliance landscape is becoming increasingly complex. One of the biggest concerns, particularly in sensitive industries like financial services and consulting, is the protection of material non-public information (MNPI) — which is why many expert networks are taking great care to emphasize their rigorous compliance frameworks. In 2024, the SEC penalized a firm for inadequate controls around MNPI, reinforcing that simply having an insider trading policy is not enough.

Globally, different regions have their own approach to regulatory oversight. 2023 saw China’s major crackdown on Capvision — a China-based expert network — for alleged violations of national security laws and improper information exchanges. This created uncertainty for expert networks operating in China and for foreign investors seeking Chinese expert insights. The incident highlighted how political factors can abruptly impact expert consultations — companies now must be vigilant about local laws (e.g., China’s restrictions on data sharing) when conducting due diligence via experts​.

Finally, with the proliferation of AI in this space, regulations around AI ethics and transparency are becoming more relevant — calling for clear guidelines on AI usage in this industry.

AlphaSense understands the importance of compliance and the risks associated with breaches and exposure to MNPI for every industry. That’s why our Expert Call Services connects you exclusively with pre-vetted, qualified industry experts to ensure that every interaction provides you with quality insights and compliance safeguards.

Additionally, AlphaSense is serious about ensuring that our AI is reliable, trustworthy, and safe. Our AI tools draw on a content database filled only with top-tier business and financial content, and why each insight surfaced by AI comes with a direct citation to the document it was sourced from for easy verification and auditability.

Stay Ahead of Industry Developments with AlphaSense

Staying up to date on every new industry development requires a tool that brings together all the premium, high-quality primary and secondary research you need, while filtering out the extraneous noise. With AlphaSense, there’s no need to meticulously search global expert networks or spend hours reviewing documents to analyze a competitive landscape. 

Our platform leverages our extensive proprietary library of expert calls so users can glean fresh insights on new products, market sizes, and sector occurrences shaping their industry. Beyond expert calls, you will find a vast content universe of company documents, news, broker research, and regulatory documents — everything you need for full-scale market and investment research. And with our award-winning AI technology, you can increase the speed and confidence of your research so that you always stay ahead. 

Start your free trial of AlphaSense today.