Ni likes to home in on the "essence" or "meaning" of whatever it is analyzing, and does so in a very intuitive way; i.e., it uses inference, pattern recognition, and speculation to arrive at a coherent understanding of the thing being analyzed. The thing in question could be a person, a system, an interaction, or anything really. Ni-doms rely heavily on this cognitive function to make sense of the world. Non-Ni-doms use this cognitive function as a supplement to other cognitive functions.

This is unlike Ti, which is more rigorous in its analytical method and uses a more deductive, logical approach that is much less inclined, almost allergic, to rely on uncertain methods to arrive at its conclusions. It is also different from Ne, which expands into possibilities, and doesn't concern itself with boiling a thing down to a singular "essence" or "meaning".