Forrester’s Izola Client FAQ

What is Forrester’s generative AI (genAI) tool, Izola?

Izola [eye-ZO-la], our new genAI tool, will help you make progress on your top initiatives faster, with answers from trusted Forrester research. Via a simple chat interface, ask Izola a question related to your top initiatives, and get a synthesized answer based on the most relevant Forrester reports and blogs. Izola lists the source research so you can go deeper. You can also provide feedback on the Izola answer to help us continuously improve.

Why is the tool named Izola?

The tool receives its name from Izola Forrester, a pioneer female journalist in the early 20th century and our founder’s grandmother. From humble beginnings to pioneering transformation, Izola symbolizes the bold innovation and inspiration that Forrester has been known for over the last four decades.

What is the goal of Izola?

Think of Izola as a shortcut and better starting point when tackling complex business problems, through a rapid synthesis of Forrester’s research, data, and insights. Izola can help you quickly get up to speed on a new topic, prepare for a meeting, and validate your strategy or direction.

Why is Izola in beta release?

Izola is in beta release because generative AI is an emerging technology that constantly evolves. As a result, Izola may provide inaccurate answers or include content not based on Forrester’s research. Releasing Izola in beta allows clients to benefit from the tool sooner, while allowing our team to gather feedback as we test new features and use cases to improve the results.

We strongly recommend that you verify any critical details of an Izola answer using the Forrester source research below the answer. If you suspect an Izola answer is not accurate, submit feedback using the “Is this answer helpful?” thumbs up or thumbs down rating feature above the answer.

Who has access to Izola?

Izola is currently only available to Forrester Decisions, Forrester Market Insights, Group Reader Access, and Reader Access Plus license holders.

If you are a Forrester client but don’t have one of these license types, contact your Forrester account team to learn more about gaining access to Izola. If you are not a Forrester client, fill out this form to learn more.

How should I use Izola?

Izola is designed to help you make progress on your top initiatives faster, with answers from trusted Forrester research. With this tool, you can:

• Ask a question about a top initiative.
• Get a synthesized answer based on our research.
• Go deeper with the research relevant to your answer.
• Rate the quality of the answer so we can improve the tool.

What use cases is Izola designed to support?

Currently, Izola is designed to help you make progress on your top initiatives faster, with answers from trusted Forrester research.

Instead of asking Izola for research, ask Izola the question you want our research to answer. For example, ask Izola, “How are tech budgets changing in 2025?”, instead of, “What research do you have on how tech budgets are changing in 2025?”.

Examples of use cases currently supported Izola include:

• Definitions: “What is explainable AI?”
• Best practices: “What is the best practice for AI governance?”
• How-tos: “How should I build a business case for AI?”
• Trends: “What are trends in artificial intelligence?”
• Use cases: “What is the use case for generative AI?”
• Data points: “What does the adoption of generative AI entail?”
• Tech and services: “What do conversational AI solutions do?”
• Market landscapes: “What is the landscape for AI services?”
• Provider evaluations: “How should I compare providers of AI services?”

What use cases is Izola not designed to support (just yet)?

For now, Izola is not intended to provide lists of reports or answer questions about Forrester products or your contract with Forrester. You can ask, but the quality of the answers is not consistent. Instead, use search or speak with your account team.

Examples of use cases not yet supported by Izola include:

• Analyst information: “What does Rowan Curran cover?”
• Analyst coverage: “Which analysts cover explainable AI?”
• Analyst recommendation: “Which analyst should I speak with for more guidance about explainable AI?”
• List of research: “What research did Forrester publish on genAI in 2024?”
• Top research: “What is the top Forrester research covering genAI?”
• Reprint recommendation: “What report on genAI should I consider for a reprint license?”
• Planned research: “What research on genAI is upcoming?”
• Product questions: “How many Courtesy Views are included in my Forrester contract?”
• Contract questions: “When is my Forrester renewal?”

What are some tips to help me improve the quality of my answers?

Use these known tips to improve the relevancy and quality of Izola answers:

• Use Izola to get answers, not find research reports. Instead of asking Izola for research, ask the question you want that research to answer or the insight you want that research to provide.
  • Example: Instead of asking Izola for research, ask Izola the question you want our research to answer. For example, ask Izola, “How are tech budgets changing in 2025?”, instead of, “What research do you have on how tech budgets are changing in 2025?”.
• Increase relevancy with simple edits to your prompt. For added relevancy, edit your prompt to include specifics such as industry, geography, or role.
  • Example: If you want the Izola answer to focus on the United States (US), simply add “US” to the prompt, such as, “How should US banks inform customers about how to avoid fees?”
• Edit your original prompt versus asking a follow-on question. For the moment, Izola is not conversational and won’t retain context from your original question or response. But you can overcome this by adding additional commands or context to your original question.
  • Example: If you want the Izola answer to be one paragraph, add this to your original prompt, such as, “What are trends in infrastructure spending? In one paragraph.” Or you can also use the “Edit question” feature to add this additional context after you’ve already submitted your prompt.
• Brainstorm with Izola to get questions you should ask. It’s common for users of genAI tools to struggle with the “blank page effect” of not knowing what questions to ask or how to ask them. Get inspiration by asking Izola for a list of questions. Then ask Izola those questions.
  • Example: Imagine you’re a CIO looking to cut costs by adopting FinOps, but not sure where to start. Ask Izola, “What questions should I ask to learn more about FinOps?” that yields a number of suggested questions. Then copy and paste relevant questions into a blank Izola prompt to get the answers.

What other features are on the Izola roadmap?

To help you make progress on your top initiatives faster, our roadmap strives to make Izola answers even more valuable and connected to the broader Forrester experience:

More valuable answers

• More data: Enrich Izola answers with more data from charts and figures in reports as well as survey data available but not published in Forrester research.
• More knowledgeable: Enrich Izola answers by expanding Izola’s knowledge base beyond reports and blogs to webinars, courses, and other context types.
• More conversational: Go deeper by asking Izola follow-on questions to your original question or get suggested questions to you should ask.
• More personalized: Get more relevant Izola answers and suggested questions to ask based on what we know about your role, industry, geography.
• More advanced: Handle more complex tasks, such as creating presentations or providing feedback on documents, based on trusted Forrester research.

More connected experiences

• More integrated: Infuse Izola throughout the Forrester platform to get personalized answers and summaries anywhere, starting with the report page, search page, and Initiative dashboard.
• More connected to analysts: Make it easier to follow and schedule inquiries and guidance sessions with Forrester analysts directly from Izola answers.
• More visual: Display relevant charts and figures in reports or curated pages of content on the Forrester platform alongside the text-based Izola answer.
• More exportable: Help you use and take action on Izola answers through alternate formats, such as PowerPoint or Word.

Does Izola replace Forrester’s existing search engine?

No, they are complementary. Forrester’s search engine will continue to provide unique value when you’re looking for a comprehensive listing of reports, blogs, webinars, podcasts, and charts and figures. Search also allows you to refine your results by applying filters and sort by relevancy or date. Izola is another option to find information.

Does Izola replace guidance and inquiry sessions with analysts or other forms of analyst engagement?

No. While Izola generates custom answers to your questions, remember that these answers are based on research produced by our analysts. Guidance and inquiry sessions allow you to go directly to the source: the analyst.

Our analysts will continue to provide highly contextual and in-depth analysis through interactive discussion and sharing of additional types of resources as appropriate. Use Izola to enhance analyst interactions, such as brainstorming questions to ask our analysts or preparing for analyst engagements.

How does Izola work?

Izola was developed in-house using open-source technologies and large language models (LLM). Izola also uses a technique called retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) to produce answers using Forrester’s published research. When you submit a question, Izola reviews the most relevant Forrester reports and blogs published since January 1, 2018, or content on analyst bio pages. Izola sends this context to our LLM to generate a summarized answer. You can review the top Forrester sources which Izola utilized to generate its answer.

Are Izola answers influenced by my product, service, or level of access?

No. Izola strives to produce the best answer from all relevant Forrester reports and blogs published since 2018, regardless of the specific product(s), service(s), and level of service that you have. In other words, we will not alter the Izola answer and “Top Forrester Sources” in any way based on your product, service, or level.

However, you may need to use a Courtesy View to fully view the reports in the “Top Forrester Sources” section that are published outside of your product, service, or level of access.

Are the answers generated from Izola sourced solely from Forrester content?

Generally, yes, but it’s not guaranteed as an AI LLM may still pull answers from other sources or have “hallucinations.” Most answers will be based on Forrester reports and blogs published since January 1, 2018, and analyst bio pages, but occasionally other materials may be cited. We always recommend that you verify any critical details of an Izola answer using the Forrester source research listed below the answer.

Is it possible for Izola to hallucinate?

Yes. Like all generative AI tools, Izola has the potential to hallucinate and produce inaccurate answers or include content not based on Forrester’s research, blogs, or analyst bio pages. We recommend that you verify any critical details of an Izola answer using the Forrester source research listed below the answer. If you suspect your Izola answer includes a hallucination, please tell us using the feedback mechanism described below.

What should I do if my Izola answer is inaccurate or I suspect it includes a hallucination?

If you believe an Izola answer is inaccurate, a hallucination, or includes content not based on Forrester’s research, blogs, or analyst bio pages, we encourage you to submit feedback using the “Is this answer helpful?” thumbs up or thumbs down rating feature at the top of the answer. This feedback will be routed to the Izola team to further diagnose and address the issue.

How does Izola use my data and the questions I ask?

We will never sell or share any identifiable data you input into Izola. See our Artificial Intelligence Policy and Privacy Policy for more detail on the type of personal data and ways we collect and use the personal data you provide. In order to ensure that Izola provides accurate and useful answers to our users and otherwise improve the quality of our products and services, we may internally review questions submitted via Izola. As with any AI or search tool, please do not insert sensitive, personal or confidential information into Izola.

Does Forrester train on my data?

Forrester does not train our model on Izola Inputs (the prompt submitted by an Izola user) or Izola Outputs (the answer generated by Izola in response to the Izola user’s prompt). As mentioned above, relevant Forrester employees may review the questions submitted via Izola and the answers generated to ensure that Izola provides accurate and useful answers to our users and otherwise improve the quality of our products and services.

Can I cite and share the answers generated from Izola in my internal or external presentations or otherwise share the responses with others?

Responses from Izola are considered to be our Forrester Works similar to any other Forrester research content found on our site. Consistent with the terms of your contract and our Sharing Policy, licensed users may share up to a paragraph of text from an Izola answer for their internal presentation purposes only. Answers from Izola cannot be shared externally in any manner without our written consent. You can cite the underlying published research that Izola displays as part of the answer. Please seek our written approval, which will be granted or denied in accordance with our Citation Policy.

Is the tool compatible in any languages other than English?

For now, Izola is only compatible with the English language and is not able to translate from or into other languages. While this functionality is not yet supported, it is something we plan to add over time.