Empowering Every Team Across the Business with the Right Tools
The role of research is evolving. It’s no longer limited to a single department or reserved for those with formal training. In today’s business environment, where teams are leaner, timelines are tighter, and expectations are higher, organizations can’t always rely on a centralized research function to lead every initiative.
Instead, the responsibility for uncovering customer insights is increasingly shared across the business. Marketers, designers, product managers, and other cross-functional contributors are stepping into research roles as part of their day-to-day work. This shift isn’t a problem. We think it’s an opportunity, one that demands new tools, new thinking, and a more inclusive approach to research.
Research Is a Team Sport
Research has traditionally been viewed as a specialized practice, and for good reason. It requires structure, clarity, and thoughtful execution to yield meaningful insights. But as research responsibilities expand beyond traditional roles, many teams are expected to dive into complex work without the training or systems to support them. When this happens, research efforts can easily become surface-level or siloed. Not due to lack of effort, but due to a lack of support.
That’s why the role of research platforms is shifting too. Today, they need to go beyond task automation and become true partners, providing the support that helps teams move from data collection to confident decision-making.
The most effective platforms are those that support the full research lifecycle, from managing audiences, to designing studies, to synthesizing and sharing results. When everything is connected on one single platform, teams can move faster, collaborate better, and ensure that insights influence action. Because the goal isn’t simply to make research possible for more people. It’s to make it meaningful, scalable, and integrated into how decisions are made.
The Rise of AI in Research
AI is already transforming how teams access and interpret data, but its next frontier of potential lies in guidance and empowerment. For non-researchers especially, the gap is often not in collecting data, but in knowing what to do with it. How do you know if a trend is meaningful? What’s the best way to summarize open-text feedback? What questions should you ask next?
AI is uniquely positioned to answer these questions, not by replacing human thinking, but by supporting it. It can coach users through the research process, surface emerging patterns, and distill complex data into clear takeaways. This unlocks a powerful shift. Instead of research being something that slows teams down, it becomes a natural extension of their work. And instead of insight being limited to a few experts, it becomes a shared language across the business.
Making Research More Accessible: Enter Alida’s AI Assistant
If we want research to become truly embedded in the way teams operate, we need to lower the barrier to entry by offering the right kind of support. That thinking guided our development of Alida’s new AI-powered Research Assistant. Built to not only accelerate but also empower, the Assistant is designed to help teams make sense of data with greater ease and confidence.
Through simple prompts, it helps uncover key takeaways, visualize trends, and suggest what to explore next. It uses natural language to translate data into digestible insights, encouraging curiosity and creativity along the way. For many teams, it’s become a reliable jumping-off point, allowing them to start stronger, move faster, and stay aligned. (Learn more about Alida’s new AI offerings here.)
The Bottom Line: Research Isn’t Just for Researchers Anymore.
With the right platform that thoughtfully incorporates the power of AI for speed and also empowerment, businesses can elevate how insights are discovered, shared, and acted upon across every team. The future of research is accessible, collaborative, and deeply embedded in how modern organizations work. The question isn’t if your team should do research. It’s how you’re going to make it easier for them to do it well.
