TL;DR:
- The Insights AI Research Agent is an AI-powered prospect researcher built directly into Virtuous Insights, now in beta
- It pulls a donor’s CRM history, wealth, and real-estate intelligence, LinkedIn profile, and live web research into a single cited report in minutes
- Reports include Giving Capacity, Suggested Gift Ask, Passions & Interests, Key Relationships, Wealth Range, Recent Funding, and more
- An AI Chat interface lets you ask follow-up questions or dig deeper into any section once a report is generated
- Virtuous Insights customers get their first portfolio of reports at no cost, with more available as you need them
- This feature is for all Virtuous Insights customers
When Prospect Research Eats Your Week
Gift officers and prospect research teams routinely spend 2 to 4 hours per donor compiling a research briefing before a single meeting or call:
- A CRM record here
- A wealth screening tool there
- A Google search for anything recent
- A LinkedIn check for a board seat or job change that never made it into the system
The result is a decent picture. Rarely a complete one. And the hours it takes to get there mean most organizations can only afford this level of depth for their top 10 to 20 prospects. Everyone else in the portfolio gets whatever a gift officer can piece together between calls, which usually isn’t much.
That gap between research depth and portfolio coverage is exactly what the Insights AI Research Agent is built to close.
What Is the Insights AI Research Agent?
The Insights AI Research Agent is an AI prospect researcher built directly into Virtuous Insights.
You can see the Insights AI Research Agent in action on this demo video below:
What the Insights AI Research Agent Does
The Insights AI Research Agent runs a multi-stage intelligence pipeline and delivers the output a dedicated prospect researcher would produce after several hours of manual work, compiled into a single exportable report in minutes.
Rather than being a separate tool to learn or a bolt-on add-on, it’s the next evolution of Virtuous Insights, transforming it from a data intelligence platform into an AI-powered research partner that works alongside your team. Instead of surfacing a suggested gift ask or a capacity range on its own, it does the research behind that number and hands you the full picture.
How the Insights AI Research Agent Works
1. Ingest first-party data.
Since Virtuous Insights is the only platform combining first-party CRM relationship data + D360 wealth intelligence + real-time web research in one AI-synthesized report, you won’t find this feature anywhere else. The agent starts with the contact’s CRM record: giving history, relationships, contact notes, and engagement,. Then, it uses all of this to build a relationship-aware foundation no other prospect research tool can replicate.
2. Query intelligence layers.
From there, it enriches against wealth and demographic intelligence, scrapes the donor’s LinkedIn profile, conducts deep web research, and pulls current property data.
3. Synthesize the report.
Everything is compiled into a single cited, exportable briefing covering:
- Giving Capacity
- Suggested Gift Ask
- Passions & Interests
- Key Relationships
- Wealth Range
- Recent Funding
- LinkedIn Connections
- A synthesized summary of years of contact notes
Each section carries a data completeness score and confidence indicators.
Once you have this data in hand, the Research Agent uses the report to intelligently formulate best practice fundraising suggestions for you. So, you can start with custom, data-driven strategies and not a blank page. And you can run your cultivation strategies against the Research Agent to check for any gaps in the approach.
4. Explore via AI Chat.
Once a report is generated, an AI Chat interface lets you ask follow-up questions, request deeper analysis on any section, draft a cultivation approach, or explore a relationship in more depth. It’s a conversation, not a static PDF.
Why This Approach Is Different
Other wealth screening tools offer wealth screening and prospect scoring, but without first-party CRM synthesis or AI report generation, teams are left stitching those results together with other tools by hand.
What none of them have is your CRM relationship history.
The Research Agent combines three layers no other prospect research tool offers together:
- Your first-party relationship data — giving history, notes, engagement
- Wealth and real-estate intelligence — capacity, property, demographic data
- Live web research — recent news, board seats, funding events
That combination, your actual giving history alongside a current capacity estimate and this week’s news about the donor, is the piece standalone screening tools can’t replicate. They don’t have access to your donor notes.
Insights does.
What This Means for the Whole Portfolio
Deep research has always been rationed. A development team with 500 donors in their portfolio might get real depth on 25 of them per quarter, leaving the rest at a surface-level understanding, not because they weren’t worth the time, but because there wasn’t enough time to go around.
The Research Agent doesn’t eliminate the tradeoff between depth and coverage, but it makes depth far more attainable at scale:
- A gift officer prepping for a meeting gets a briefing instead of a scavenger hunt across six tools
- A development director gets portfolio-wide visibility into capacity and cultivation readiness instead of guessing which prospects need attention next
- A new team member has access to years of information to help them start their relationship on the right foot
Where to Find the Insights AI Research Agent
The Insights AI Research Agent is available now inside Virtuous Insights. If you’re a current Insights customer, you’ll find it directly in your Insights environment, ready to run on any contact in your CRM.
Your first portfolio (up to 150 profiles) of reports is included at no additional cost, with more available through your Customer Success Manager as you need them.
Not an Insights customer yet? Request a demo to see a Research Agent report in action.
Frequently Asked Questions
Here’s the FAQ section rewritten so both the questions and answers name the Insights AI Research Agent and Virtuous Insights specifically, rather than relying on “it” or “this feature”:
What is the Insights AI Research Agent in Virtuous Insights?
The Insights AI Research Agent is an AI prospect researcher built into Virtuous Insights. It pulls together CRM history, wealth, and real-estate intelligence, LinkedIn data, and live web research into a single cited donor briefing, custom fundraising strategy suggestions based on the findings, plus an AI Chat interface for follow-up questions.
Who can use the Insights AI Research Agent?
The Insights AI Research Agent is a Virtuous Insights feature, available now to all current Virtuous Insights customers.
What’s included in an Insights AI Research Agent report?
An Insights AI Research Agent report includes Giving Capacity, Suggested Gift Ask, Passions & Interests, Key Relationships, Wealth Range, Recent Funding, LinkedIn Connections, and a synthesis of contact notes, each with a data completeness score and cited sources. With this, you’ll receive strategic recommendations for your next best steps as a fundraiser, based on the data from the report.
How is the Insights AI Research Agent different from other wealth screening tools?
Other wealth screening and prospect scoring tools don’t offer first-party CRM synthesis or AI report generation, requiring manual stitching with other tools. The Insights AI Research Agent combines CRM relationship history, wealth intelligence, and live web research in one AI-synthesized, cited report.
How much does the Insights AI Research Agent cost?
Every Virtuous Insights customer’s first portfolio (up to 150 profiles) of Research Agent reports is included at no additional cost. Additional capacity is available through your Customer Success Manager.
Do failed or incomplete Insights AI Research Agent reports count against my portfolio?
No. Research Agent reports that come back thin or incomplete are never charged against your allotment.
