Expert Network Usage in 2026: Who Uses Them and How Much They Spend
Expert network usage in 2026 is broad but uneven. Inex One estimates about 11,200 firms use expert networks and that the industry reached roughly $3 billion in 2025. Consultants drive about 46% of spend, corporates are nearly half of clients, and a typical one-hour call costs $525 to $1,500 depending on the provider.
What Counts as Expert Network Usage?
An expert network is a firm that recruits, screens and pays industry practitioners for short, compliance-checked consultations with clients who need first-hand knowledge. Expert network usage covers every way a client consumes that knowledge, not only live calls.
In 2026, usage falls into five measurable formats:
- Live expert calls: one-to-one consultations, usually 30 to 60 minutes.
- Transcript libraries: searchable archives of past expert interviews, such as Tegus (now part of AlphaSense) and the Third Bridge Library (formerly Forum).
- AI-led interviews: calls run by an AI interviewer with a human expert, such as AlphaSense’s AI Interviewer, launched in August 2025.
- B2B surveys: quantitative surveys of verified professionals recruited by an expert network.
- Embedded advisors: experts retained for longer engagements.
Most published statistics measure revenue or client counts, not individual analyst behaviour. That limits what any 2026 expert network usage report can say about how often analysts call experts.
How Big Is the Expert Network Market in 2026?
The most widely cited bottom-up estimate puts global expert network revenue at about $3 billion in 2025. Inex One, an expert network marketplace, published that figure on February 9, 2026: “We estimate the Expert Network industry reached ~$3Bn in 2025, growing 12% annually between 2023-25.” That growth followed a slower 2021–2023.
Earlier editions of the same series show the curve. Revenue grew just 1% to $2.28 billion in 2023, led by private equity demand, according to Integrity Research’s coverage of Inex One’s 2024 study. Revenue then passed $2.5 billion in 2024, up 9%.
| Source | Type | Figure | Scope and method |
|---|---|---|---|
| Inex One (Feb 2026) | Vendor (marketplace) | ~$3.0B in 2025 | Global; bottom-up, firm-level revenue estimates |
| Inex One via Integrity Research (2024 study) | Vendor, reported by independent trade press | $2.28B in 2023 (+1%) | Global; firm-level revenue estimates |
| IBISWorld (2025) | Independent industry research | $1.8B in 2025; 7.0% CAGR 2020–2025 | United States only |
| Global Info Research (Jan 2026) | Syndicated market report | $4.17B in 2025; $7.244B by 2032 | Global; definition not public |
| Business Research Insights | Syndicated market report | $4.86B in 2026; $18.03B by 2035 | Global; definition not public |
Verdict: Use about $3 billion for 2025 as the working number. The $4 billion-plus syndicated estimates do not publish firm-level methods and probably use a broader market definition, so they should not be mixed with the Inex One series.
How Many Firms Use Expert Networks, and Who Are They?
Inex One estimates that about 11,200 companies use expert networks in 2026. Corporates are the largest group by number of firms. Consulting firms are the largest group by spend.
| Buyer segment (Inex One, Feb 2026) | Estimated firms | Share of clients | Share of spend | Implied average spend per firm* |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Strategy consultants | ~1,020 | ~9% | ~46% | ~$1.35 million |
| Financial and capital markets (PE ~2,895; hedge funds ~1,405; asset managers and banks ~595) | ~4,895 | ~44% | ~42% | ~$257,000 |
| Corporates (strategy, product, market research) | ~5,285 | ~47% | ~12% | ~$68,000 |
| All segments | ~11,200 | 100% | 100% | ~$268,000 |
Nexus Expert Research calculation: Inex One’s ~$3 billion 2025 market estimate × segment share of spend ÷ segment firm count. These are means. A few very large buyers pull them up, so the typical (median) firm spends less.
Inex One’s two February 2026 articles round slightly differently. The market-size article gives consulting “~50%” of spend and corporates “~45%” of clients. Treat all shares as approximate.
Inex One’s client-mapping note says its estimate of the client base grew “from 4,500 in 2022 to 11,200 in 2026,” and attributes part of that rise to “a wider data capture.” Its market-size summary describes the same trend as roughly 150% growth over 2022–25. Corporate strategy, product and market research teams account for most of the growth. This matters for consulting and marketing firms: expert networks now serve their clients directly, not only investors.
How Often Do Analysts Use Expert Networks?
No independent survey published between 2023 and 2026 measures expert calls per analyst. The best available evidence is a dated independent survey, an academic dataset limited to one platform, and vendor guidance on calls per project.
| Context | Calls | Source type |
|---|---|---|
| Median buy-side user | 5 consultations per month | Independent, but dated |
| Hedge fund investment thesis | 5–8 calls per thesis | Vendor guidance |
| Seed-stage venture deal | 3.6 calls per deal (536 calls, 147 deals) | Academic; one platform’s transcripts |
| Series A venture deal | 5.3 calls per deal (2,403 calls, 452 deals) | Academic; one platform’s transcripts |
| PE pre-LOI screening | 3–5 calls | Vendor guidance |
| Standard single-asset PE diligence | 8–15 calls | Vendor guidance |
| Mid-market vs large-cap PE deals | 5–15 vs 15–30 calls | Vendor guidance |
| Mid-market confirmatory diligence | 15–40 calls | Vendor guidance |
How to read this: Vendor guidance converges on 8 to 20 calls for a single diligence or strategy decision. The academic figures are lower because they count only calls that reached one platform’s transcript library. Expect public-market investors to call more steadily than consultants or corporates, who buy in project bursts. Inex One describes usage as “ranging from very sporadic to daily.”
How Much Do Firms Spend on Expert Networks?
Average expert network spend depends on the unit you measure. A one-hour call costs about $525 to $1,050 at networks that publish prices, and clients of traditional networks typically pay $1,000 to $1,500 per consultation. Vendr’s anonymised data puts median annual contracts at $30,000 for Tegus and $78,980 for AlphaSights. The $1,000 to $1,500 range comes from Woozle Research’s 2025 study.
What does one expert call cost?
| Provider or benchmark | Price | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| Tegus (AlphaSense) | ~$525 per hour | ~$450 average expert rate + $75 flat transcription fee |
| Nexus Expert Research | $650–$900 per senior expert call | Pay per call, no subscription |
| Inex One | $1,050 per 60 minutes; $840 per 30 minutes | Marketplace list price |
| Integrity Research (2019) | ~$1,000 per hour | Average bundled fee at most networks |
| Woozle Research (2025) | $1,000–$1,500 per consultation | What clients “typically pay” |
What do annual expert network contracts cost?
Vendr’s anonymised procurement data, compiled by Market Intelligence Tools on October 1, 2026, gives these median annual contract values. They are not list prices.
| Network | Vendor median per year | Tracked range |
|---|---|---|
| AlphaSights | $78,980 | $71,596 – $987,796 |
| Guidepoint | $48,000 | $4,790 – $131,000 |
| Tegus | $30,000 | $13,000 – $65,200 |
What share of the research budget goes to expert networks?
Large asset managers spent about 2% of their annual research budgets on expert networks in 2024. The figure comes from Substantive Research’s H1 2024 survey, released July 10, 2024: “Independent Research Providers (IRPs) and Expert Networks remain unchanged at 8% and 2% respectively of annual budgets on average.” The sample was 60 asset managers (60% headquartered in Europe, 40% in North America) with more than $20 trillion in AUM, split 75% long-only and 25% hedge funds. It excludes private equity and consulting firms and under-represents heavy hedge fund users. Substantive’s H1 2026 update found research budgets up just 0.4% globally, with tooling and analytics rising to 7%.
What Do Analysts Use Expert Networks For?
Analysts use expert networks mainly for commercial due diligence, investment thesis testing, market sizing and market entry, and competitive intelligence. B2B surveys and product research are a fast-growing secondary use.
- Inex One’s 2026 segment analysis lists these typical uses:
- Strategy consultants: commercial due diligence on investment targets; market analysis for expansion into new segments or geographies.
- Private equity, hedge funds and asset managers: competitive landscape and operational risk of a target; real-time reads on policy changes that could move a stock.
- Corporates: market-entry strategy; customer segmentation and ideal-customer-profile research.
- Market researchers: B2B survey sampling. Inex One reports researchers are shifting spend from B2C panels to expert network respondents.
Private companies now dominate in one platform’s data. The 2025 working paper by Liu, Merkley, Pacelli and Volant analysed 84,094 call transcripts from one leading expert network platform and found that calls about private firms outnumber calls about public firms by about 2 to 1.
How are expert networks used in due diligence?
Expert networks are used in due diligence to test a deal thesis with people who have worked inside the target’s market: former executives, customers, competitors and suppliers. Deal teams typically run 3 to 5 screening calls before a letter of intent, then 8 to 40 calls during confirmatory diligence, according to published guidance from expert network providers.
- A typical sequence:
- Desk research and transcripts: build the market view from filings, reports and existing transcript libraries.
- Pre-LOI screen (3–5 calls): test market attractiveness and look for deal-breakers.
- Confirmatory diligence (8–40 calls): customer retention, pricing power, competitive threats and management quality.
- Quantify with surveys: where a pattern needs more than a handful of voices.
- Post-deal monitoring: follow-up calls on value-creation assumptions.
The same working paper found that an expert call in the prior six months was associated with a 60% higher likelihood of a capital-raising deal and 73% more capital raised. This is an association in one platform’s data, not proof that calls cause deals.
Live Calls vs Transcript Libraries vs AI Interviews: How Is the Research Mix Changing?
Transcript libraries are taking share from one-to-one calls, and AI-led interviews are emerging, but live calls remain the default for new or niche questions. Inex One reports that asset managers have moved part of their spend from live calls to transcript libraries, which has also reduced margins on calls.
The library market consolidated in 2024. On June 11, 2024, AlphaSense announced a $930 million cash-and-stock deal for Tegus, alongside a $650 million raise co-led by Viking Global and BDT & MSD Partners that valued the combined company at $4 billion. The deal closed on July 8, 2024. By August 19, 2025, AlphaSense reported more than 200,000 transcripts across 25,000 companies, growing by 7,000 a month. Third Bridge launched a Model Context Protocol (MCP) connector in March 2026, an open standard that lets AI assistants query its library of more than 100,000 transcripts.
| Format | Best for | Cost signal | Main limitation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Live expert call | New, niche or private-company questions; your own questions | ~$525–$1,500 per hour | Scheduling time; compliance overhead |
| Transcript library | Getting up to speed; public-company coverage | Tegus median ~$30,000 per year (Vendr) | Other clients’ questions; thin on niche private topics |
| AI-led interview | Scaled channel checks across many tickers | — | 81% of experts who had experienced AI moderation rated it worse than human moderation (Woozle, 2025) |
| B2B survey | Quantifying a pattern across 30–100+ respondents | — | Less depth per respondent |
Inex One expects AI-led interviews to grow faster in B2C research than in B2B, where small-sample, high-stakes calls dominate.
Four-column comparison of live expert calls, transcript libraries, AI-led interviews and B2B surveys by best use, cost signal and main limitation
Which Expert Networks Lead, and Is the Market Consolidating?
Inex One classes six firms as global leaders in 2026: GLG, AlphaSights, Third Bridge, Guidepoint, Dialectica and AlphaSense. It ranks GLG and AlphaSights as tied for largest.
Share is moving from older firms to newer ones:
- GLG’s market share fell from 51% to 24% within a decade, according to Inex One.
- Second-generation firms such as AlphaSights, Third Bridge and Dialectica held 44% of the market, against 37% for first-generation firms such as GLG, Guidepoint and Coleman (Inex One).
- AlphaSights reports more than 3 million client-expert interactions since 2008 and 2,000+ professionals in 9 cities (company website).
Deals have reshaped parts of the market:
- AlphaSense–Stream by Mosaic (October 2021): transcript library.
- VisasQ–Coleman Research ($102 million, 2021). VisasQ later wrote off the goodwill after Coleman’s revenue fell.
- AlphaSense–Tegus ($930 million, 2024).
- Slingshot Insights–Noble Insights (June 2025).
Despite these deals, Inex One concludes that the predicted consolidation “hasn’t really materialized.” More than 100 smaller networks compete by region, sector or business model. For buyers, that means more choice and more vendors to manage.
What Do the Data Say About Quality and Compliance Risk?
The biggest quality risk in expert network usage is a mismatched expert. The biggest compliance risk is material non-public information (MNPI), meaning confidential information that could affect a security’s price.
Woozle Research released The State of the Expert Economy 2025 on December 4, 2025. It surveyed 1,368 expert network participants between October and November 2025 through LinkedIn and direct outreach. Woozle sells against traditional networks, so treat its framing with care. Its founder, Mark Pacitti, CFA, said: “When clients pay $1,200 for a consultation and nearly one-third of experts say they weren’t fully qualified for the call, that highlights structural weaknesses.” Its findings:
- 31% of experts said they had completed calls they weren’t fully qualified for.
- 71% receive project invitations that don’t match their expertise, and 32% receive them frequently.
- Experts rated project-to-expertise alignment 7.5 out of 10 on average.
- 65% earn under $400 per consultation, and 69% don’t set their own rates.
On compliance, the SEC’s Division of Examinations issued the risk alert “Investment Adviser MNPI Compliance Issues” on April 26, 2022. It found that some investment advisers failed to track and log expert network calls, review detailed call notes, and review staff trading in companies in industries similar to those discussed. That alert is the practical baseline for buy-side usage controls. Consulting and marketing firms are rarely SEC-registered advisers, but their clients’ NDAs and procurement rules often impose similar screening.
This section is general information, not legal advice. Confirm your obligations with qualified compliance counsel.
Are Expert Networks Worth It for Analysts?
Expert networks are worth it for analysts when a single wrong assumption would cost more than the calls needed to test it. At $1,000 per call, a 15-call diligence program costs about $15,000, which is small against most investment or market-entry decisions. Expert networks are poor value for questions that filings, published research or an existing transcript already answer.
No independent study measures the ROI of expert network usage. The closest evidence is the 2025 working paper’s association between recent expert calls and capital-raising outcomes, and repeat buying: consulting firms put about 46% of industry spend into expert networks year after year (Inex One).
When not to use an expert network:
- The answer is already in filings, a syndicated report or a transcript library.
- You need a statistically valid number. Use a survey instead.
- You cannot write down the decision the calls are meant to change.
- Your compliance team cannot log calls and screen experts before the call.
The 5-Metric Expert Network Usage Audit
The 5-Metric Expert Network Usage Audit is a Nexus Expert Research checklist for benchmarking a firm’s expert network usage against published 2026 data. Run it on the last 12 months of invoices and call logs.
- Volume: Count calls per project and per analyst per quarter. Compare with the 8–20 calls per decision that vendor guidance converges on.
- Mix: Split spend across live calls, transcript subscriptions, surveys and AI interviews. If you pay for a library, check how often people open it before booking a call.
- Effective cost per useful call: Divide total spend by the number of calls that confirmed or changed a decision. Compare with the $525–$1,500 headline price.
- Match rate: Track the share of proposed experts you accept and the share of completed calls rated relevant. Woozle’s survey found 31% of experts had taken calls they weren’t fully qualified for, so measure this rather than assume it.
- Compliance trail: Check that each call has a log entry, screening answers and notes. These are the three controls the SEC’s 2022 risk alert found missing at some advisers.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many analysts use expert networks?
No published source counts individual analysts who use expert networks. The best firm-level estimate comes from Inex One, which estimates that about 11,200 companies use expert networks in 2026, including about 2,895 private equity firms, 1,405 hedge funds and 1,020 strategy consultancies. Analyst-level usage remains an open data gap.
What percentage of firms use expert networks?
No current independent survey reports what percentage of firms use expert networks. The most recent independent figure is Integrity Research’s 2009 estimate that slightly less than 40% of buy-side firms in North America and Europe used expert networks. Inex One’s 2026 estimate of about 11,200 user firms is a count, not a percentage.
How long does it take to get an expert call?
Common expert profiles usually surface within 24 to 72 hours, according to provider guidance. Woozle Research’s 2025 study notes that networks work to 24–48-hour fulfilment targets. Rare technical or regulated profiles take longer. Nexus Expert Research recruits from scratch for each engagement and targets experts in under 24 hours.
How much are experts paid per call?
Most experts earn far less than clients pay. In Woozle Research’s 2025 survey of 1,368 experts, 65% earned under $400 per consultation, while clients typically paid $1,000 to $1,500. Tegus lets experts set their own rate, which AlphaSense puts at about $450 on average.
Do expert networks work for consulting and marketing firms?
Yes. Consulting firms are the largest spenders, at about 46% of industry spend according to Inex One, and corporates (including marketing and product teams) make up about 47% of client firms. Agencies use expert networks for B2B surveys, in-depth interviews and market-entry research.
What to Do Next
Pull your last 12 months of expert network invoices and run the 5-Metric Expert Network Usage Audit. If you cannot calculate effective cost per useful call or match rate, start there.
Then test one live question with a provider that recruits for your brief rather than filtering a static database. Nexus Expert Research recruits from scratch for every engagement and delivers experts such as air traffic controllers, Big 4 hyperscaler directors and heads of crypto trading in under 24 hours.
