---
url: https://byoxon.com/blog/ai-news-kantata-expertise-insights-2026-10/
title: "Kantata Launches Expertise Insights for Plain-English PSA Analytics: What It Means for Agencies"
description: Kantata launched Expertise Insights on Oct 20, 2026: PSA questions in plain English. What agencies should check about utilization definitions first.
type: blog-post
category: Business Solutions
author: Slava Khristich
published: 2026-10-27
modified: 2026-10-27
read_time: 6 min
---

# Kantata Launches Expertise Insights for Plain-English PSA Analytics: What It Means for Agencies

*On October 20, 2026, Kantata launched Expertise Insights, an analytics feature in its professional services automation platform. A user asks a business question in plain English and gets a chart, a calculation or a summary. This article reports what Kantata said and what the release leaves out. It also shows why the definition behind a number matters more to an agency than the speed of the answer.*

**Key takeaways**

- Kantata launched Expertise Insights on October 20, 2026: plain-English questions on PSA data, four dashboards and a semantic layer.
- The release states no price, no accuracy data and no setup detail, and it quotes one customer.
- The same week of hours gives 75.0% or 62.5% utilization depending on the definition, so ask who owns the definition before you trust an AI answer.

## What Kantata announced on October 20

Kantata made the announcement at Technology & Services World in Las Vegas. In a [press release dated October 20, 2026](https://www.kantata.com/blog/article/kantata-introduces-expertise-insights-the-real-time-intelligence-engine-driving-professional-services), it described Expertise Insights as a generative BI tool for services firms. The tool is built on Amazon Quick and delivered as part of Kantata's Expertise Engine. The release lists these features:

- **Plain-English questions.** A user types a question and gets an interactive chart, a calculation or an executive summary. The release says this works without SQL, menus or waiting for an analyst.
- **Four ready-made dashboards.** Finance, Delivery, Time and Resourcing. Together they cover margin, revenue per head, cost leakage, project health, utilization, timesheet compliance, skills, capacity and demand.
- **Ask Insights.** Users request analysis beyond the four dashboards. The release also says they can get a finished board deck in minutes.
- **A semantic layer.** It maps technical data fields to the words a firm uses. The release's example is the difference between "chargeable utilization" and "billable utilization".
- **Availability.** Kantata says Expertise Insights is available and in use by customers today.

Kantata cites one customer. Andy Newbill, a senior manager at Lumanity, says he built a complex report with calculated fields in an hour, a job that would otherwise take hours. The release also points to a Gartner research note on agentic analytics, dated May 15, 2026. Kantata says analysts see context as the main barrier to adoption as enterprise AI moves from reporting to autonomous execution.

## What the release does not say

We read the release. We did not see the product, and we did not read the Gartner note, only the lines the release quotes from it. These gaps matter for a buyer:

- **No price.** The release states no price for Expertise Insights and does not say which plans include it.
- **No accuracy data.** It gives no error rate and no check of answers against a month-end close. The only result is one customer's time saving.
- **No setup detail.** The release says each firm's data gets its own context. It does not say who writes the definitions, how long that takes, or what happens when a firm changes one.

## What it means for agencies and software teams

### The definition is the product

The line in the release that matters most to a buyer is a small one. Kantata says its semantic layer keeps "chargeable utilization" apart from "billable utilization". The release defines neither term, and firms define them differently. Ask an AI tool "what was our utilization last week?" and the answer depends on which definition the layer holds. The example below uses plain labels and numbers we assumed. It is not Kantata data.

A team of 8 works a 40-hour week, which gives 320 capacity hours. Timesheets show 240 hours on client projects. Invoices cover 200 of those hours. The other 40 were written off or went into fixed-fee work that ran past its plan. The remaining 80 hours were internal time.

Divide the 240 client-work hours by capacity and utilization is 75.0%. Divide the 200 invoiced hours by capacity and it is 62.5%. Both answers are correct, and they sit 12.5 points apart. At an assumed cost of $45 an hour, the 40 uninvoiced hours cost $1,800 that week, or $7,200 over four weeks.

A fast answer to a loosely worded question hides that gap unless someone asks which definition applies.

### Two PSA vendors launched AI analytics in five days

Klient launched Klient Insights on October 15, 2026. We covered it in [our article on Klient Insights and AI-built charts](https://byoxon.com/blog/ai-news-klient-insights-psa-dashboards-2026-10/). Kantata followed five days later. Both vendors put dashboards over PSA data and add an AI step that builds views on request. Ask both which hours count in a number, who owns the definitions, and how an answer is checked against the books.

### Speed does not fix late time

A question answered in seconds still reads the timesheets. Late time, or hours on a catch-all project, makes the answer wrong in seconds too. Kantata's chief technology officer, Vikas Nehru, says in the release that the work needs clean data and context as well as AI.

### See what your week of hours earned

Start free with up to 5 users. Add rates, log one week of hours in BeOnBoard and open the real-time P&L view to see margin per project. Prefer a walkthrough? Request a demo.

[Try BoB free](https://byoxon.co/register) Request a demo

## Kantata Expertise Insights and BoB side by side

The table maps five questions to what Kantata says in the release and to what the Byoxon homepage lists for BoB. It uses public pages only. We did not test either product.

| Question | Kantata Expertise Insights (Kantata release, Oct 20, 2026) | BoB (byoxon.com homepage) |
|---|---|---|
| Where are we losing margin? | Finance dashboard: margin, revenue per head and cost leakage trends | Real-time P&L per project, employee, client and category, plus a monthly P&L projection |
| How busy is the team? | Time dashboard (utilization, timesheet compliance) and Resourcing dashboard (skills, capacity, demand) | Multi-project resource allocation with per-person rates, and a roster that shows who files timesheets on time. The homepage lists no utilization dashboard. |
| Can I ask a new question in plain English? | Yes, through Ask Insights: charts, calculations, summaries and a finished board deck in minutes | The homepage lists customizable reports and exports (CSV, Excel, PDF). It lists no natural-language questions, deck builder or other AI features. |
| Where do the definitions live? | In a semantic layer that maps data fields to firm terms | In the rates, overhead and custom time categories set in the tracker |
| Availability and price | Available and in use by customers today. No price stated. | $15.95 to $24.95 per user per month, volume-based. Free for up to 5 users. |

Kantata says more than 1,500 organizations use its platform. BoB is an all-in-one platform for small teams that want time, invoices and project P&L in one place.

### When Kantata is the better choice

Kantata fits a services firm that wants questions across finance, delivery, time and resourcing answered in plain English, and that can keep the definitions behind those answers maintained. BoB fits a team that wants time, invoices and project P&L in one standalone tool and has no need for natural-language analytics. For a fuller comparison, read [Byoxon vs. Kantata](https://byoxon.com/blog/byoxon-vs-kantata/).

## Four questions to ask before an AI answers your utilization number

1. Which hours count: logged, approved or invoiced?
2. Who owns each definition, by name, and where is it written down?
3. What happens to past answers when a definition changes?
4. Can you click from an answer to the time entries behind it, and do they match your last month-end close?

These questions are our advice, not Kantata's.

## Where BoB fits

BoB, the product from Byoxon, is not part of this news. We make no claim that BoB has AI features. Its role here is the record under any answer. The Byoxon homepage lists custom time categories, separate billing rates, real-time profit and loss per project, employee, client and category, a monthly P&L projection, and invoices built from time records.

See also our pages on [project cost management](https://byoxon.com/project-cost-management-software/) and [employee timesheets](https://byoxon.com/employee-timesheet-software/), and our article on [AI use in services projects](https://byoxon.com/blog/ai-news-ai-adoption-services-projects-2026-10/).

## Frequently Asked Questions

### What is Kantata Expertise Insights?

Expertise Insights is a generative BI feature in Kantata's Expertise Engine, launched on October 20, 2026. Users ask questions in plain English and get charts, calculations, summaries or a board deck. It includes four dashboards for finance, delivery, time and resourcing.

### Is Kantata Expertise Insights available now, and what does it cost?

Kantata says Expertise Insights is available and in use by customers today. The release states no price and does not say which plans include it. Ask Kantata for a quote.

### Why does the definition of utilization matter for AI answers?

Firms count utilization in different ways, such as hours on client work or hours invoiced. In our assumed example, one week gives 75.0% on one definition and 62.5% on the other. An AI tool has to know which one the firm uses.

### Does BoB answer questions with AI?

The Byoxon homepage lists no AI features for BoB. It lists real-time project P&L, a monthly P&L projection, customizable reports and exports. Check byoxon.com for the current feature list.

## Sources

- Kantata, "Kantata Introduces Expertise Insights: The Real-Time Intelligence Engine Driving Professional Services", press release, October 20, 2026 (updated October 22): [kantata.com](https://www.kantata.com/blog/article/kantata-introduces-expertise-insights-the-real-time-intelligence-engine-driving-professional-services)
- Byoxon, homepage: [byoxon.com](https://byoxon.com/)

## Related

- [Klient Launches Live PSA Dashboards With AI-Built Charts: What It Means for Agencies](https://byoxon.com/blog/ai-news-klient-insights-psa-dashboards-2026-10.md)
- [Asana Study Finds AI Agents Add Coordination Work: What It Means for Agencies](https://byoxon.com/blog/ai-news-ai-agent-coordination-overhead-2026-10.md)
- [Byoxon vs. Kantata: Fast PSA Deployment Without Enterprise Consulting Overhead](https://byoxon.com/blog/byoxon-vs-kantata.md)