DAVID MARIO SMITH, FOUNDER AND PRINCIPAL ANALYST
The digital workplace is being rebuilt around AI agents.
I have covered collaboration and the workplace for over two decades, sixteen of them as a Gartner analyst and then as Research Director at Aragon Research. InFlow Analysis is where I do that work independently, with no vendor scorecards to defend and no seat licences to sell.
16 years
Gartner
Gartner
Research Director
Aragon Research
Aragon Research
Coverage
Collaboration & Digital Workplace
Collaboration & Digital Workplace
Focus
Agentic AI in knowledge work
Agentic AI in knowledge work
HOW I WORK
Two kinds of people call me.
The questions run in opposite directions. One side is trying to be understood, the other is trying to see clearly. Both need someone with no product to sell.
FOR TECHNOLOGY VENDORS
You need someone who knows your category well enough to tell you where you're wrong.
- Analyst briefings and ongoing advisory retainers
- Positioning and messaging pressure-tested before launch
- Commissioned research and third-party perspective
- Webinars, panels, and launch commentary
FOR ENTERPRISE TEAMS
You're being sold agentic AI. Someone should tell you which parts are real.
- Vendor landscape reviews and shortlist validation
- Collaboration and digital workplace strategy
- Adoption planning, the part most programmes get wrong
- Workshops and executive briefings
COVERAGE
Where I spend my attention.
01
Digital workplace
Employee experience, the tooling stack, and what actually changes how people work.
02
Collaboration platforms
The Zoom, Teams and Slack ecosystems, and the consolidation pressure reshaping them.
03
Agentic AI
Where autonomous agents genuinely change knowledge work, and where the claims outrun the product.
04
Adoption & change
Technology enabling business process, the strategy layer that decides whether any of it lands.
WHY INDEPENDENT
I helped build the machine. I know what it leaves out.
Big-firm research is built to be sold at scale. That’s what makes it safe, slow, and the same answer your competitor bought.
Sixteen years inside Gartner taught me exactly what that model is good for. Rigour, coverage, a defensible position in a board pack. It also taught me where it goes quiet. That model cannot move at the speed your category is moving, and it will not tell you the specific, awkward thing about your product.
Independent analysis costs less, turns around faster, and comes with a name attached to it. You are buying a judgement, not a subscription tier.
INSIGHTS
Recent analysis.
Start with a conversation, not a contract.
Tell me what you’re trying to decide. If I’m the right person for it, we’ll talk about how to work together. If I’m not, I’ll say so.