Institutional memory is vanishing. Speed has overtaken perfection. And AI is raising the bar, not lowering it, for insights teams.
In Stravito’s latest webinar, CEO and founder Thor Philogène sat down with Evan Williams, founder of Perennial Mind and former insights leader at General Mills, Kraft, Uber, and Mondelēz. Together, they unpacked what it takes for insights leaders not just to survive uncertainty in 2025, but to thrive through it.
Here are five standout insights from their candid conversation:
True resilience isn’t about simply weathering the storm; it’s about evolving with intention. Both Thor and Evan emphasized that modern insights leaders need to empower teams to interact directly with data and tools. The democratization of data is freeing up experts to focus on strategic guidance and thought leadership.
“Resilience is about evolving how we work, how we think, and how we create value,” said Thor.
Yet, the shift requires balance. While democratization increases agility, it can introduce risks of misinterpretation or misuse. That’s why building strong, scalable systems, as well as a culture of data responsibility, is essential.
In high-churn environments, institutional memory can vanish overnight. Evan highlighted a common corporate trap; information is technically preserved, but inaccessible in practice.
“Without the right systems, past research becomes archaeological—buried, forgotten, and ultimately useless,” he noted.
Thor added that centralized knowledge platforms like Stravito are transforming this dynamic, cutting through noise and combating ‘insights inflation’, a term describing the overload of data that dilutes strategic clarity. Roche’s insights team has seen this firsthand, creating a hub where knowledge is no longer lost but actively reused to guide strategy.
Knowing isn’t doing. In times of uncertainty, the gap between insight and action widens. Insights professionals must frame their work to guide decisions, not just report findings.
“Good and on-time beats perfect and late,” Evan advised, stressing the importance of agility over perfection in high-stakes environments.
Thor also underscored the role of storytelling and clear communication in boosting impact. Making insights digestible, timely, and relevant is the key to influence.
With the explosion of tools and data sources, insights leaders must shift from gatekeepers to enablers. That means embedding insights into daily workflows and conversations across the business.
During his time at Mondelēz, Evan recalled using cardboard cutouts of customer personas in meeting rooms, a simple but effective way to embed insights into daily thinking. Today, platforms like Stravito replicate this visibility at scale, embedding insights directly into daily tools and workflows through feeds, Collections, and visual storytelling features.
While generative AI is transforming the insights landscape, both speakers agreed that it’s not a silver bullet. While generative AI offers scale, it can’t replace human judgment. As both speakers emphasized, it’s the combination of AI with centralized, structured knowledge that truly enables insight.
As Thor put it, “LLMs alone aren’t the answer, but LLMs within knowledge management platforms? That’s the future.”
Heineken’s CMI team has proven this at-scale. By pairing GenAI with a curated insights repository, they’ve increased content usage by 71% and saved over 1,500 hours a week.
In a time where change is constant, the insights function has a pivotal role to play, helping companies adapt, learn, and lead. As this discussion made clear, success hinges not just on collecting data, but on enabling teams with systems and a culture resilient enough to turn insights into action.
These ideas aren’t happening in isolation; insights leaders from across the industry are voicing similar views. In fact, the 2025 State of Insights Report highlights many of the same themes, from the need to democratize knowledge to the urgency of making insights more actionable in the face of constant change.
Want to learn more about how a platform like Stravito can support resilient insights work? Get in touch.