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Valona 2026 Report: 63% of CI Teams Stuck at Intermediate Maturity

Valona's 20th-edition global survey finds 63% of intelligence teams spend 80% of time on data collection. Here's what world-class teams do differently.

5 min readPublished 2026-04-03

What happened

Valona Intelligence has published the 20th edition of its Global Market and Competitive Intelligence Report, the longest-running benchmark study of market intelligence operations worldwide. The survey collected responses from 196 intelligence professionals across 143 companies in 29 countries, with both practitioners (78%) and executives (22%) represented.

The headline finding: 63% of intelligence teams are stuck at intermediate maturity — functional enough to have established processes, hired analysts, and deployed monitoring tools, but not yet operating at the level where they consistently influence strategic decisions. Only 7% of teams have reached what Valona classifies as "World Class" maturity, where intelligence operations shape strategy and operate at decision speed.

The report introduces a six-dimension maturity framework — Focus, Organization, Process, Tools & AI, Deliverables, and Culture — and benchmarks teams across five maturity levels from Informal to World Class. The findings draw a sharp line between teams that collect data and teams that drive decisions.

Why it matters for CI practitioners

The Valona report provides the kind of global competitive benchmarking data that CI leaders need to diagnose where their programs stand and make the case for investment. Three findings stand out as particularly actionable.

1. The 80/20 time allocation problem is the root cause. The report's most damning statistic: most intelligence teams spend 80% of their time on data collection and only 20% on analysis. This ratio is inverted for World Class teams. When the majority of an analyst's week is consumed by finding, aggregating, and formatting information, there is simply no time left for the strategic analysis that makes intelligence valuable. The fix is structural — it requires investing in tools and processes that automate data collection so analysts can focus on insight generation. Teams that have not automated their monitoring and aggregation workflows should treat this as the single highest-priority initiative.

2. Strategic analysis is the differentiator, not technology investment. One of the report's more counterintuitive findings: both World Class and intermediate teams invest heavily in technology (71% vs. 58% adoption rates, respectively). The difference is what they do with it. One hundred percent of World Class teams prioritize strategic analysis capacity, compared to just 48% of average teams. Technology alone does not close the maturity gap — it is the organizational commitment to analysis-first workflows that separates the top 7% from the rest. For CI leaders making budget cases, this data argues for investing in analyst time and analytical frameworks, not just additional tool licenses.

3. ROI measurement separates the funded from the vulnerable. Seventy-eight percent of World Class teams actively measure intelligence ROI, while only 20% of average teams do. In budget-constrained environments, teams that cannot demonstrate the business impact of their intelligence work are the first to face cuts. The Valona data suggests that ROI measurement is not just a nice-to-have — it is a characteristic of the teams that have achieved the highest maturity levels. Practitioners who are not yet tracking and reporting on the revenue or strategic impact of their intelligence outputs should start immediately, even with imperfect metrics.

Key details

  • Report edition: 20th annual Global Market and Competitive Intelligence Report
  • Survey size: 196 respondents from 143 companies across 29 countries
  • Respondent mix: 78% practitioners, 22% executives
  • Maturity distribution: 63% at intermediate maturity; 7% at World Class
  • Time allocation: Intermediate teams spend 80% on data collection, 20% on analysis
  • Strategic analysis: 100% of World Class teams prioritize strategic analysis vs. 48% of average teams
  • Technology adoption: 71% of World Class teams vs. 58% of average teams invest in technology
  • ROI measurement: 78% of World Class teams measure intelligence ROI vs. 20% of average teams
  • Maturity framework: Six dimensions (Focus, Organization, Process, Tools & AI, Deliverables, Culture) across five levels

Market implications

The Valona report arrives at a moment when the intelligence software market is experiencing significant investment and consolidation. AlphaSense is raising at a $4B+ valuation, Klue has closed its Series B, and AI-native CI tools are proliferating. Yet the Valona data suggests that the maturity challenge facing most intelligence teams is not primarily a technology problem — it is an organizational and process problem.

This has implications for how vendors position their products and how buyers evaluate them. The report's finding that technology investment alone does not predict maturity challenges the narrative that "better tools = better intelligence." Vendors that can demonstrate how their platforms shift the 80/20 time allocation — reducing data collection burden and enabling more analysis time — will have the strongest positioning with the 63% of teams stuck at intermediate maturity.

For CI leaders building the case for program investment, the Valona framework offers a structured diagnostic. By benchmarking across the six dimensions, teams can identify specific gaps and prioritize investments accordingly. A team that scores well on Tools & AI but poorly on Culture and Deliverables, for example, has a different investment roadmap than one that is underinvesting in technology.

Practitioners looking to advance their programs from intermediate to advanced maturity should consider the guide to building a competitive enablement program as a starting framework. For teams evaluating intelligence platforms, the Valona alternatives page provides a comparison of tools that address the maturity gaps highlighted in this report.

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