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Macro challenges and declining results continue for Forrester. The best news from Q3? Earnings per share (EPS) came in 19% better than expected by analysts. And Forrester launched AI Access, an entry-level research product that “democratizes” access to Forrester data and content. The worst news from Q3? Total revenue landed at $94.3 million, a decline of 8% year-over-year. And research-specific revenue totaled $72.6 million, down 6% year-over-year.
Colony spoke at length about Forrester’s place in an era of genAI. To his credit, he acknowledged “that there have been many questions about the value of research in a world in which public large language models are becoming more adept at answering questions.”
Colony noted that LLMs help people converse with broad data sets, but also emphasized that ChatGPT and the like do not connect users to private data sources – ranging from Bloomberg to Forrester to personal bank accounts. A private AI model, though, such as one built by Bank of America, could give a customer AI-driven access to account information.
“Public AI will never be able to construct trusted data from thin air, just as it will not be able to conjure your bank balances without access to your bank,” Colony said. “In the age of AI, Forrester will be akin to a private research bank” … with proprietary Forrester assets: data, original ideas, frameworks, complex analysis, and understanding of Forrester clients’ priorities and initiatives. “This information will not be available in public models.”
Colony believes that the AI-driven future is for the benefit, not detriment, of humans. “This is not a robot moment when the androids arrive to take all of our jobs,” Colony said. “It is rather an Iron Man moment when humans will put on suits of generative and agentic AI and become more powerful for their customers. Yes, there’s a lot of AI at work, but inside the suit is still a human being that is able to channel AI to deliver the highest value. That’s exactly what Forrester Research is doing with Izola and AI Access – using AI to become more powerful and more useful to its clients and to the world, while also offering access to the analysts that created the research in our model.”
In the Q&A section of the call, financial analysts asked a few questions about the disruption for Forrester from genAI and if clients and prospects are mentioning LLMs – out of curiosity or as an alternative. The Forrester executives acknowledged the latter happens, and said they stress the quality, reliability, and trustworthiness of Forrester data in contrast to the public information the LLMs leverage.
Forrester Chief Product Officer Carrie Johnson added:
“For every client or prospect conversation that we have asking to compare us to the public [large language] models, we have more than that asking to actually put our data and insights into their employee environment, where they’re getting trusted insights to empower their employees. That’s actually where most of our conversations are happening, where they’re seeing this opportunity to say, ‘Hey, we’ve been tasked with providing a world-class set of insights to our employees to make decisions, to go win deals. How can we make sure that Forrester data and insights are in our protected environments? We don’t want our employees relying on the public models to make business decisions.’ There’s more opportunity than threat on this front, because we think that companies understand the impact and the importance of trusted data sources.”
With AI Access in place, the expanded Forrester Decisions product portfolio looks like this:
Revenue from events was insignificant in Q3, because one of Forrester’s main conferences (Technology & Innovation Summit) now takes place in Q4. The bigger picture, though, is uncertain. Forrester CFO Chris Finn said “the outlook for the events business remains challenged, specifically the outlook for sponsorship revenues.”
Forrester has announced dates and locations for seven events in 2026. Only two of those seven will take place in the United States (B2B Summit in Phoenix and CX Summit in Nashville), but presumably a Q4 2026 Technology & Innovation Summit for North America will be announced soon.