2025 Year in Review: What We Have Observed in the Industry
Based on 51 published issues of our weekly OSINT Newsletter in 2025
Hello, from the OSINT Jobs team 👋
This Year in Review is based on 51 editions published over the past year. It brings together what we observed across the global OSINT ecosystem and how we see the field evolving.
This year, we want to highlight five areas:
OSINT Developments in the United States
Impact of Generative AI on OSINT
Mis- and Disinformation in the Age of Generative AI
What Skills Really Matter in OSINT
OSINT professionals face growing constraints
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1. OSINT Developments in the United States
We looked closely at the United States this year, which has led efforts to treat OSINT as a first resource, most clearly through the DNI’s 2024–2026 strategy that named OSINT “The INT of First Resort” and aimed to unlock its value, making U.S. actions this year a useful signal for what others may do in the future.
In February, the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI) created a dedicated OSINT subcommittee. It was designed to strengthen oversight and give OSINT clearer direction across the intelligence community.
In September, the Federal News Network reported that the House advanced an intelligence bill, which elevates OSINT by centralising oversight of open source and commercial data, setting clear definitions, and tasking the DNI with coordinating standards, budgets, and acquisitions across the intelligence community.
By the end of the year, opposition from multiple intelligence agencies slowed reforms tied to commercial data access. The plan stalled, though it may return for debate next year, Intelligence Online reported.
2. Impact of Generative AI on OSINT
Unsurprisingly, Generative AI has significantly affected the OSINT industry.
Early in the year, Indagotech argued that OSINT practitioners must adapt or fall behind. According to them, generative AI is the biggest shift in OSINT in almost twenty years and is therefore described as the Start of OSINT 3.0.
Interestingly, the United States military experimented with generative AI for intelligence interpretation, as MIT Technology Review reported.
It’s no surprise that this technology is used by both good and bad actors. Google reported that threat actors mainly used their GenAI technology for routine tasks like research, troubleshooting, and content generation rather than developing new capabilities. Similarly, OpenAI reported it disrupted more than 40 malicious networks since early 2024 and found that threat actors mostly used AI to speed up old tactics rather than create new ones.
The debate also widened beyond tools. Commentators argued that the future of intelligence is open and that the United States must rely on AI and open sources to keep its strategic edge. At the same time, others warned of the transparency trap. More open data does not automatically lead to better insight and can increase the risk of deception, bias, and false confidence.
Additionally, concerns were raised about analysis quality, as experts warned that heavy reliance on AI tools can weaken human judgment and core OSINT methods, making interpretation the central challenge, as one author put it.
Taken together, we can see that Generative AI now shapes OSINT training, tools, and services, but it does not replace critical analysis - essential skills which we will discuss again later.
3. Mis- and Disinformation in the Age of Generative AI
Generative AI also significantly affected mis- and disinformation.
The EU’s External Action Service introduced the FIMI Exposure Matrix to map how state backed actors run influence campaigns across platforms. The report reviewed 505 incidents from 2024, and showed heavy use of bots, fake news sites, and AI generated content.
Practitioners also focused on awareness and response. A new NATO StratCom podcast episode explored how hostile actors use AI to polarise societies and what risks policymakers must prepare for next.
One very important resource we want to highlight in the context of countering mis- and disinformation is the work of DW Innovation, who closed its five year KID project and released a full verification toolkit, including training tools, a fact checking game, and an AI powered geolocation system. AFP also launched a free course to help journalists master the InVid verification plugin.
Mis- and Disinformation will remain central in the coming years, as Generative AI produces text and media at incredible speed. Using the four V framework of big data, we see more volume, velocity, and variety than ever before, but veracity remains a key challenge and a core issue for OSINT, especially when it comes to distilling signal from noise.
4. What Skills Really Matter
Coming back to skills, this is an area we observe as still under-acknowledged and rarely studied with rigour. OSINT work changes fast, but we still lack clarity on which skills truly matter. Much of the debate relies on isolated insights from practitioners. What’s missing is an evidence base, and this is exactly the gap we are now working to fill at osint-jobs.com
We ran a structured survey to understand how OSINT practitioners use AI across the ‘intelligence cycle’, from collection to reporting. The first responses came mainly from experienced analysts working in investigations, due diligence, geopolitics, mis- and disinformation, and anti-fraud.
Most already use AI daily, mainly for collection, analysis, and writing. They see clear productivity gains but also flagged limits around cost, access to data, information overload, fast changing tools, and growing legal and ethical pressure.
The results point to a clear gap between speed and skill. Teams lack technical abilities, shared methods, language skills, and standardised practices. AI now supports most OSINT workflows, but practitioners stress the need for human judgment and solid tradecraft.
This is an early snapshot only. You can dive into the results here (open access):
Special Edition (October 2025)
Hi, this is the OSINT-Jobs.com Team. You probably expected the monthly OSINT roundup, but this month is a little different.
We keep the survey open and will rerun the analysis to strengthen our insights.
We encourage all OSINT professionals to take part:
5. OSINT professionals face growing constraints
Something interesting we noticed in the past couple of months were reports related to activities affecting OSINT professionals.
Researchers uncovered a malware campaign on GitHub to infect IT and OSINT professionals with a stealthy remote access trojan, as Hackread reported.
Separately, a developer of a well known OSINT tool warned on LinkedIn about suspicious abuse, where anonymous actors typosquatted domains, violated the usage license, and released uncredited copycat search tools.
At the platform level, GitHub also restricted accounts hosting OSINT and dark web resources, Indicator Media reported in September.
Together, these events highlight the ongoing need for stronger security awareness and careful tool vetting. Even if one argues that these events stand alone, they still serve as a clear example of why we should not blindly rely on free tools or services. As we have said many times, we must not depend on tools alone, and checking and vetting them is essential for OPSEC.
That’s it. Thanks for reading our Year in Review. We hope you found the insights useful. Once again, the entire OSINT Jobs team thanks our paid subscribers and wishes everyone a happy, healthy, and successful 2026!
See you next year :)
More insights?
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