The endless search for white space

Thought leadership often comes down to the concept of white space.

White space refers to the untrodden territory of insight: the questions that are being asked but not yet answered, the unnoticed trends, the new ways of looking at a topic. White space is where thought-leaders earn their “leader” designation by being first, establishing them and their organisations as intellectual pioneers in a particular sphere of expertise.

White space doesn’t last for long. Once it’s identified, others soon flood the space with their own perspectives. Marketing teams are then tasked with finding new white space, and this is one of the hardest parts of their jobs.

Just ask AI?

This being the year 2026, the first instinct is to ask artificial intelligence to identify some white space. But as marketing teams are discovering, life isn’t quite that easy. AI collates other people’s insights, often from a while ago, and synthesises them into a readable format. This is the opposite of thought-leadership: it’s thought-followership. Ask AI to find some white space, and it will often come up with ideas that are not, in fact, fresh.

White space is better discovered among human beings who work in the real world, and have new thoughts on that work. Thought leadership is not about summarising the consensus view, but explaining how an expert’s view differs from the consensus. This is why when it comes to white space, N/N takes a hybrid approach, blending AI-powered research with insights from our clients’ thought leaders.

A cybernetic white space generator

AI is an excellent resource for giving an overview of current conversations and themes within an industry. It helps to provide clarity over where insight gaps may exist, and where the existing consensus around an issue has landed. It offers a means to do quantitative research quickly and efficiently in ways that illuminate ideas and support insights.

But equally crucial is speaking to clients to explore what they are seeing in their work. Agencies like N/N exist not to create thought leadership ourselves, but to coax it from thought leaders; those who work at the coalface of their industries and who see change happening in real time.

Often, white space is carved out by recent changes in the external market environment. Thought leadership is not about breaking news, but nor is it a historical exercise that dwells on the past. It lies somewhere in between: white space will often be found where new market trends require an older consensus to be revised, updated or even jettisoned.

But the key message is this: white space can always be found. It is there within an organisation. Locating it ultimately comes down to having the right conversations with the right people about the right topics, and understanding how their work has changed, and how they think it will change in future.