Futurist > Companies creating the future > 7 AI-native expert networks
7 AI-native companies reinventing the expert network model
This article is part of a series on AI and expert networks. Read the overview and market trends, 5 leading established expert networks and how they are responding to AI, and 3 marketplaces and aggregators reinventing how companies access expert talent.
The newest cohort of expert networks was founded mostly from 2015 onward, with technology and AI closer to the center of the business model from the start. Some take a generalist approach with AI-driven sourcing at scale; others focus on a single vertical where AI-based matching can build genuine domain depth. The most recent entrants go further, questioning how expert data should be captured in the first place.
What sets these companies apart is not simply that they use AI, since the established players do too. The difference is that AI shapes their operating model, cost structure and product design in ways that are hard to retrofit from a legacy base. NewtonX discards the static database entirely. Arbolus redesigned the format of engagement. Dialectica named and invested in a proprietary AI stack. Ethos is changing how expertise is captured at the point of onboarding. Enquire AI builds a hybrid where AI agents and human experts work in tandem.
| Company | Founded | HQ | Scale | Funding | AI signature |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NewtonX | 2016 | New York | 1.1B scanned | ~$47M | On-demand Knowledge Graph |
| Arbolus | 2018 | London | ~180 staff | ~$41M | Canopy video Q&A; API-first data |
| Techspert | 2016 | Cambridge | Life sciences | £5M credit | Specialist AI matching |
| Dialectica | 2015 | Athens | 1,400+ staff | Private | Dialectica IQ, 50+ GenAI tools |
| proSapient | 2017 | London | Europe-focused | $10M | AI-moderated interviews |
| Ethos | 2024 | London | 35k/week onboarded | $22.75M | Voice-agent onboarding |
| Enquire AI | 2017 | Washington DC | 40k+ experts | ~$8.5M | Hybrid AI + human, Ayda |
NewtonX
No fixed database, since the expert pool is rebuilt for every project.
Founded: 2016
HQ: New York, USA
Funding: ~$47M (Series B)
NewtonX was founded by former McKinsey consultants and engineers on the premise that a fixed, pre-registered database is a constraint rather than an asset, particularly for niche topics where the right expert may never have joined a network. Its Knowledge Graph scans more than 1.1 billion professionals across 140 industries and identifies the most qualified individuals for each project.
The expert pool for any given query is reconstructed on demand rather than drawn from a static list, with every professional passing a two-step identity and expertise check, and AI also monitoring calls and surveys for compliance.
NewtonX challenges the founding assumption of the whole sector, that a pre-vetted database is the product, and argues the pool should be built fresh each time.
Arbolus
Redesigning the format of expert engagement, not only the technology.
Founded: 2018
HQ: London, UK
Funding: ~$41M (~$20M Series B, 2024)
Arbolus was founded in 2018 by Sam Glasswell and Will Leeming to modernize what they saw as an analogue industry, building technology into the core rather than treating it as support for analysts. Its most distinctive product, Canopy, is a video question-and-answer tool that collects structured responses from many experts to a set of pre-defined questions without scheduling calls one by one.
This compresses research timelines and produces comparable answers across a cohort rather than a single freeform conversation. A proprietary AI assistant lets clients search and analyze the growing archive of transcripts, and the platform is built to feed expert data directly into clients’ own AI environments through its API.
Arbolus is designing expert data to be machine-readable from the outset, positioning itself as an infrastructure layer feeding automated decision pipelines rather than only a research tool.
Techspert
Specialist matching for life sciences, where job titles hide expertise.
Founded: 2016
HQ: Cambridge, UK
Funding: Independent; £5M growth credit (2026)
Techspert focuses only on life sciences and healthcare, a field where matching is unusually hard because relevant expertise rarely maps to job titles. A useful expert might be a practicing clinician who also publishes in a subspecialty and separately holds regulatory experience, none of which a standard title captures.
Its technology was built around this multi-dimensional view of expertise from the start, applying AI to discovery and matching and to automated data capture during interviews. Techspert remains independent, taking on £5 million of growth credit from Palatine in February 2026 to fund expansion.
Techspert shows AI expertise compounding through specialization rather than breadth, developing domain intelligence in one vertical that generalist platforms struggle to match.
Dialectica
Interviews, surveys and a proprietary AI stack under one roof.
Founded: 2015
HQ: Athens, Greece
Funding: Privately held; 1,400+ staff
Dialectica was founded in Athens in 2015 by former management consultants George Tsarouchas and Fred Corkett, and has grown to more than 1,400 employees serving consulting and investment clients across several regions. It operates as an information-services company, organizing expert interviews, running B2B surveys and producing custom research deliverables.
Its differentiation lies in combining interview and survey formats with a high analyst-to-client ratio. Its proprietary system, Dialectica IQ, links company, product, customer and people data in a knowledge graph and applies more than 50 bespoke generative-AI tools to speed access to insight.
Dialectica shows that a fast-scaling challenger can invest in a named, proprietary AI stack rather than treating AI as a bolt-on, and make that stack part of its market position.
proSapient
AI built into operations from day one, for a leaner cost base.
Founded: 2017
HQ: London, UK
Funding: $10M Series A (2021)
proSapient was founded in London in 2017 by Margo Polishchuk, previously at the expert network Coleman Research, and Jordan Shlosberg. From early on it emphasized building its own platform and automating internal expert-network operations rather than relying on manual sourcing.
It applies AI across expert identification, briefing, matching and transcription, including AI-moderated interviews and searchable transcript libraries, with the explicit aim of reducing the analyst hours needed per engagement without sacrificing match quality.
proSapient is the clearest demonstration that founding architecture matters, since building AI into the workflow from the start produces different economics than retrofitting it onto a legacy base.
Ethos
Voice-driven onboarding that captures what forms and titles miss.
Founded: 2024
HQ: London, UK
Funding: $22.75M Series A (2026, led by a16z)
Ethos is the most recently funded company here and arguably the most architecturally novel. It was founded in 2024 by James Lo, previously of McKinsey and SoftBank, and Daniel Mankowitz, previously an AI researcher at DeepMind who worked on Gemini and the AlphaDev algorithm. In May 2026 it raised a $22.75 million Series A led by Andreessen Horowitz with General Catalyst and others.
Its innovation targets how expert data is captured in the first place rather than how it is searched afterward. Most platforms ask experts to complete a form based on job title, producing a shallow signal. Ethos instead uses AI voice agents to conduct a structured interview, capturing knowledge across domains that titles do not reflect, and is onboarding roughly 35,000 experts a week.
Ethos reframes the data problem, since voice is a richer onboarding medium than a form, and the tacit expertise it captures is exactly what complex natural-language queries need.
Enquire AI
A hybrid of AI agents and human experts, aimed at structured research.
Founded: 2017 (as GlobalWonks, rebranded 2021)
HQ: Washington, DC, USA
Funding: ~$8.5M ($3M bridge, 2025)
Enquire AI began in 2017 as GlobalWonks, founded by Cenk Sidar, Bilal Baloch and Fatih Orhan, and rebranded as its AI capabilities became central. It reported revenue of $1.7 million in 2024, up from $1.4 million, across around 80 clients and a network of more than 40,000 experts.
The company describes its model as hybrid intelligence, combining AI agents with human experts to deliver structured responses, AI-led interviews and synthesized insights. Its Ayda assistant helps clients refine queries, positioning Enquire against both legacy expert networks and static research products.
Enquire AI is a working example of the direction the whole sector is drifting toward, a research platform where AI agents and human experts operate as one system rather than as alternatives.
This article is part of a series on AI and expert networks. Read the overview and market trends, 5 leading established expert networks and how they are responding to AI, and 3 marketplaces and aggregators reinventing how companies access expert talent.
