Channel Checks

For decades, channel research was the exclusive edge of mega-funds spending tens of millions on internal teams. AlphaSense changes that. Our AI-led Channel Checks deliver ground-level demand, pricing, and supply chain signals across hundreds of tickers — transforming channel research from a costly, static process into a fast, scalable, and fully transparent intelligence system available to every investor.

Trusted by the world's leading firms:

• 95% of the top consultancies
• 90% of the top asset management firms
• 88% of the S&P 100
• 80% of the top hedge funds
• 92% of the largest pharmaceutical companies

What Are Channel Checks in Investment Research?

A channel check is a research method used to assess a company’s performance by gathering on-the-ground, third-party information from the company’s suppliers, distributors, and customers before this information shows up in public disclosures or official financials.

Historically, channel research programs were limited to the largest hedge funds that could afford to spend tens of millions of dollars on analysts to call suppliers, distributors, and customers. Smaller funds were forced to either cobble together ad-hoc channel intelligence or rely on static, non-transparent reports from sell-side shops. AlphaSense brings this capability to your existing workflow, delivering it at scale, with consistency, and real-time transparency that even elite funds have never achieved.

How AlphaSense Channel Checks Work

AlphaSense Channel Checks is a living channel intelligence system. Thousands of consistent conversations every month surface clean, comparable signals on demand and pricing from ground-level channel sources weeks before the market catches on.

We’re not just matching what the market has done, but rather advancing it. By moving from point-in-time reports to dynamic, continuously refreshed intelligence, we deliver a level of validation and depth that even top-tier funds have struggled to achieve. AlphaSense is setting a new standard for how investors access, evaluate, and act on channel intelligence and pre-earnings insights.

Channel Checks expand the Tegus Expert Transcript Library, the largest proprietary library of expert insights in the industry, with AI-led, one-on-one interviews that deliver structured, timely intelligence on customer behavior, competitive dynamics, and market shifts.

Key Product Capabilities:

• AI-led interviews with distributors, suppliers, and retailers to surface real-time demand trends, pricing movements, and competitive dynamic signals as they happen — from 350+ tickers across the healthcare, industrials, and technology and telecommunications sectors
• AI-powered Generative Grids that synthesize expert perspectives into actionable intelligence, all displayed in an easy-to-read grid format and updated each time new transcripts are published
• Ask-in-Grid feature in each Generative Grid to ask questions in natural language and receive instant answers pulled from live datasets
• Shareable links that allow teams to align instantly on market developments and support collaboration
• Period comparison feature that allows you to see how expert views have evolved over time, helping you spot trends as they emerge

Why Real-Time Channel Intelligence Matters

Real-Time Early Signal Advantage

AlphaSense Channel Checks provide relevant, real-time, high-quality channel perspectives on forward-looking demand, pricing, and market dynamics before consensus catches up. Signals refresh continuously, creating a living intelligence system instead of an episodic project-based research. This allows you to turn early signal detection into alpha and reduces exposure to negative earnings surprises.

Unbiased and Informed on Premium Content

AlphaSense Channel Checks uncover information that relationship-driven research can miss, with forensic consistency that never varies by analyst skill or rapport. Our AI is trained on deep research covering industry, market, and company-specific knowledge, so it’s prepared for every call with robust expertise.

Unlike generic LLMs or outsourced call teams, our proprietary AI interviewer is purpose-built for investment research, delivering consistent and unbiased questioning across all calls. The result: data-driven insights that help you challenge management narratives and build conviction.

Speed to Insight

AlphaSense Channel Checks substantially expedite research, enabling more confident decision-making when time-sensitive opportunities emerge. And with our Generative Grid feature, you can simultaneously interrogate dozens of Channel Check interviews for a company or sector, compressing research cycles from weeks to hours.

Dynamic Exploration and Comparable Insights

AlphaSense Channel Checks live within the broader AlphaSense platform, so you can move seamlessly from a single expert insight to the full company picture, pulling in filings, broker research, and earnings transcripts on the same ticker. Generative Search lets you interrogate Channel Check transcripts in natural language, while Workspaces let you organize evidence across primary and secondary sources to build a defensible thesis.

Scalable Coverage

AlphaSense Channel Checks have coverage across over 100 industries, giving investors a sector-wide pulse rather than fragmented company insights. In this way, they support broader portfolio mandates without adding headcount. The result: Analysts can confidently cover 2-3x more names with deeper channel-level intelligence than traditional research methods allow.

Full Transparency

AlphaSense Channel Checks include full transcript access, ensuring complete transparency and defensibility as opposed to the black-box summaries many research vendors rely on. All insights come with source citations, allowing analysts to verify insights and defend investment recommendations with primary source evidence.

Channel Checks Use Cases for Investors and Researchers

AlphaSense Channel Checks may be an ideal fit for:

Buy-Side Firms

Buy-side firms also always need a broader view of markets to allocate capital confidently. Channel Checks aggregate perspectives at a massive scale to build conviction and eliminate blind spots.

• Hedge Funds & Asset Management – Channel Checks for intra-quarter thesis validation, pre-earnings positioning, and portfolio coverage expansion.
• Private Equity & Venture Capital – Channel Checks for commercial diligence, growth assumption validation, and portfolio company performance tracking.

Investor Relations

Channel Checks provide all the necessary insights to help investor relations professionals anticipate and prepare for questions ahead of earnings calls. They also help strengthen messaging around demand trends.

Corporate Strategy and Research Teams

With channel checks, corporate strategy teams gain early detection of share shifts and competitive threats, as well as a better understanding of competitor strategies.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the coverage of AlphaSense Channel Checks?

The current coverage of AlphaSense Channel Checks spans 350+ tickers and approximately 200 Channel Check grids across technology and telecommunications, healthcare, industrials, energy, and consumer sectors.

Who can access AlphaSense Channel Checks?

Channel Checks are available to all buy-side investors (hedge funds, asset management, private equity, venture capital) and investment banking professionals, as well as consultants and corporate professionals with access to Expert Insights.

How is the AI interviewer trained?

The AI Interviewer is configured with defaults that ensure a compliant, structured, and dynamic interview experience. It’s trained on expert research best practices, relevant industry data, and the expert’s background. Before each call, the AI receives a custom Deep Research brief to guide questioning, ensuring every interview is informed, relevant, and tailored to the topic.