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Community knowledge in 2026: where answers go

A short, ungated brief built from public data: where communities run, how long their answers last, and how people now look for them.

Last updated By the Dium team at TAO.ai Secondary research brief
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In short

  • About half of communities run on chat-first tools: Slack 19.9%, WhatsApp 16.7%, Discord 12.8% (CMX 2026, via Bettermode).
  • Slack's free plan shows 90 days of history, and deletes messages older than a year (since August 2024).
  • 67% of B2B buyers prefer to buy without a sales rep (Gartner, 2026).
  • 51% of B2B software buyers start research with AI chatbots more often than Google (G2, April 2026).
  • 93% of community professionals use AI tools (CMX 2026).

Most communities run on chat tools

No single platform dominates. In the CMX 2026 data, the most common main platforms were Slack (19.9%), WhatsApp (16.7%), Discord (12.8%), Discourse (12.2%) and Circle (12.2%) [1]. The three chat-first tools add up to 49.4%, about half of communities.

Slack19.9%
WhatsApp16.7%
Discord12.8%
Discourse12.2%
Circle12.2%
Share of communities by main platform, top five, CMX 2026, as reported by Bettermode [1]. Axis runs from 0% to 25%. Chat-first tools are highlighted. Remaining platforms not shown.

Chat tools are built for the conversation happening now. In a busy channel, the answer to a common question is only as findable as the scrollback.

Chat history is not an archive

Slack's free plan shows the last 90 days of messages [3]. Since August 2024, Slack deletes free-workspace messages older than one year, as reported by Zulip, a Slack competitor [4]. The same post reports that the Kubernetes community got less than a week's notice before losing its sponsored Slack plan in June 2025.

VisibleHidden on the free planDeleted
Visible: last 90 daysHidden: 90 days to 1 yearDeleted: older than 1 year
Age of a message in a Slack free workspace, drawn to scale in days (axis to 450 days). 90-day limit from Slack's pricing page [3]; deletion after one year since August 2024, as reported by Zulip [4].

For a community on a free chat plan, an answer given 91 days ago is hidden, and one given 13 months ago is gone.

Buyers look for answers on their own

Gartner found 67% of B2B buyers prefer a rep-free buying experience, up from 61% the year before. 45% used AI during a recent purchase [5] [6]. G2 found 51% of B2B software buyers now start research with AI chatbots more often than Google, up from 29% a year earlier [7].

Prefer rep-free buying, 2025 survey61%
Prefer rep-free buying, 2026 survey67%
Start research with AI chatbots more than Google, Apr 202529%
Same, Apr 202651%
Share of B2B buyers. Rep-free preference from Gartner [6] [5] (2026 release: 646 buyers surveyed August to September 2025). AI chatbot research from G2 [7] (1,076 respondents). Axis 0% to 100%.

G2's data also shows where those AI answers get their trust: 45% of buyers say citations from software review sites are the most confidence-inspiring signal [7].

Use AI chatbots for software research71%
Chose a different vendor than planned based on AI guidance69%
Say review-site citations are the most confidence-inspiring signal in an AI answer45%
Bought from a vendor they did not know before33%
Share of B2B software buyers, G2, April 2026 [7]. Axis 0% to 100%.

AI is now part of the community job

93% of community professionals use AI tools, up from 81% in the previous CMX report [2].

Previous CMX report81%
CMX 202693%
Share of community professionals who use AI tools, CMX 2026 Community Industry Report [2]. Axis 0% to 100%.

AI tools and AI search can only reuse what was written down somewhere they can reach. Answers locked in hidden or deleted chat history are not available to them.

In July 2012, the McKinsey Global Institute estimated that interaction workers spend "nearly 20 percent" of the workweek looking for internal information or tracking down colleagues [8]. This figure is more than a decade old. We include it because it is still widely cited, not because it describes 2026. We found no recent primary study that replaces it.

Time spent looking for internal information or colleagues, 2012 estimate20%
McKinsey Global Institute estimated interaction workers spend "nearly 20 percent" of the workweek on this [8]. Published July 2012; shown at 20% of a full workweek. Axis 0% to 100%.

What this means for community teams

This section is our interpretation, not a finding from the sources.

  • About half of communities keep their knowledge in chat tools, where answers scroll away and, on some free plans, are not kept.
  • People increasingly research alone and with AI. A public, written answer can help them; a chat message from last spring cannot.
  • A simple habit helps on any platform: when a question is answered well, write the answer down once, in a place that is searchable and does not expire.

Method

This is a secondary-research brief. We did not run a survey or collect new data. We compiled public figures published by the organisations listed below, and checked each link on September 28, 2026.

  • Sample sizes are given where the source states them: Gartner, 646 B2B buyers surveyed August to September 2025; G2, 1,076 respondents. The CMX platform-share figures come from Bettermode's summary of the CMX 2026 report; we did not see the full CMX sample for that question.
  • Source interest. Zulip competes with Slack, Bettermode sells community software, and G2 runs a review site. Their figures are reported as they published them.
  • Dated data. The McKinsey figure is from 2012 and is labelled as such.
  • Charts are drawn to scale with bars that start at zero. Each chart states its axis range.
  • Authors. Compiled by the Dium team at TAO.ai. Dium makes community software, so we have an interest in this topic.

Sources

  1. Bettermode, community management statistics roundup citing the CMX 2026 Community Industry Report
  2. CMX, 2026 Community Industry Report
  3. Slack, pricing page (checked September 28, 2026)
  4. Zulip, "Who owns your Slack history?", July 24, 2025
  5. Gartner press release, March 9, 2026: 67% of B2B buyers prefer a rep-free experience
  6. Gartner press release, June 25, 2025: 61% of B2B buyers prefer a rep-free buying experience
  7. G2 research via PR Newswire, April 15, 2026
  8. McKinsey Global Institute, The Social Economy, July 2012

Cite this report

You are welcome to quote and chart these figures. Please cite the original sources above, and this brief if it helped.

Citation
Dium (TAO.ai). "Community knowledge in 2026: where answers go." Research brief, September 28, 2026. https://dium.io/reports/community-knowledge-2026/

Found something out of date or wrong? Email [email protected] with a link to the source. We check it, fix confirmed errors and change the "last checked" date only when the facts change.

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