Forrester has long sat at the intersection of technology and business. When I joined the firm in 1991 as a research associate, I saw firsthand how technologies such as client/server computing and Lotus Notes (who remembers that?) reshaped how enterprises worked.

Today, as head of customer success, I have a front-row seat to the next inflection point: AI. The difference is that my role is no longer just about analyzing trends — it’s about ensuring that those trends deliver real outcomes for our clients. Here, we call those outcomes Forrester returns — the concrete value that clients realize from applying our research and analyst advice.

With AI, large language models, and agentic technologies evolving at unprecedented speed, we’ve made it part of our customer success managers’ daily conversations to ask clients a simple question:

“What return are you realizing from Forrester’s research and advice — and, specifically, on AI?”

In their words, executives consistently point to three ways that Forrester is helping them turn AI ambition into impact.

  1. Faster Decision-Making

The most common benefit that our clients cited from our research and analyst insights was speed. Forty-six percent of the results we captured pointed to Forrester helping teams move faster on their AI initiatives.

Specifically, leaders are using Forrester’s AI research, frameworks, and tools to accelerate:

  • Internal AI maturity assessments: helping teams focus where it matters most.
  • Vendor selection: cutting through inflated and often confusing AI claims.
  • Platform shortlists: pressure-testing real AI and agentic capabilities.

One IT architecture leader shared that Forrester helped them “accelerate vendor identification and uncover a critical vendor that Copilot missed.”

Another executive put it more plainly: “Forrester’s AI guidance cut months of internal debate down to weeks.”

  1. Reduced Risk

Nearly as many executives told us that risk reduction was their primary return from our research — 44% said Forrester’s research helped reduce the risk or cost associated with AI-related decisions on:

  • Clarifying where AI and agentic tools truly add value — and where they don’t.
  • Establishing pragmatic AI governance and guardrails.
  • Embedding data quality and security practices that make AI safe to scale.

Security and risk leaders emphasized that our guidance enabled progress without paralysis. As one client summarized, “Forrester helped us design a pragmatic approach to agentic AI that enabled safe adoption instead of endless debate.”

  1. Help Winning, Serving, Or Retaining Customers

While speed and risk dominated responses, the most compelling feedback came from leaders already connecting Forrester’s research on AI directly to customer outcomes — 10% tied Forrester’s AI research to winning, serving, or retaining customers. These organizations are using Forrester’s insights to:

  • Improve digital experiences and content discoverability in an “answer engine” world.
  • Align content, architecture, and data for conversational AI experiences.
  • Enable faster responses and more personalized customer interactions.

One client stated, “Forrester’s analyst has been instrumental in helping shape both our roadmap and positioning around the AI mandate for one of our buyers, the CFO. This has helped us pivot our messaging to better align with buyer expectations.”

The Bottom Line

As AI advances to agentic and private models, Forrester and our customer success team remain focused on one thing: delivering measurable Forrester returns for our clients at every stage of their AI journey.

To keep pace with the AI landscape, read Forrester CEO George Colony’s latest blog post on what’s coming next in AI — and why it matters.