Forrester’s Izola Client FAQ

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

Launched in October of 2023, Izola [eye-ZO-la] is our genAI tool to help you make progress on your top initiatives faster, with insights and advice from trusted Forrester research. Clients can access Izola from the Forrester platform in two ways:

• The Izola hub: Use a chat interface where you can ask a question and get synthesized insights and advice across Forrester’s reports and data.
• Izola for reports: Get instant summaries and converse with a specific research report using the Izola panel that is seamlessly integrated into the report experience.

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.

What makes Izola different from other AI tools?

Tools matter, and how you build them matters even more. Forrester AI Access differs from other AI tools and public LLMs in four important ways to deliver responsible, functional AI for everyone in your organization:

• Proprietary research and insights. Forrester experts produce proprietary research and insights based on in-depth interviews with practitioners, technology and service provider briefings, and annual data surveys of more than 500,000 respondents that span consumer behavior, customer experience, business buyer trends, and technology.
• Industry-leading. Forrester launched the Izola tool in 2023 — years ahead of industry peers. Now embedded in the Forrester platform and used by thousands of clients, Izola paved the way for Forrester AI Access: the only AI-first research service powered by trusted, proprietary insights and advice.
• Actionable. Implement presentation-ready insights and advice instantly, with traceable links back to validated, original sources providing credibility, context, and confidence.
• Built for business. AI Access is optimized to provide succinct advice and concise responses. Use it to create business cases, get strategic advice, summarize reports, track trends, find vendors, and more.
• Integrated experience. The Izola hub and Izola for reports are fully integrated into the Forrester client platform and research report experience.

When did Izola move out of beta release into production?

Izola has been tested and in constant evolution since October 2023 with client feedback and cocreation. Releasing Izola in beta allowed clients to benefit from the tool sooner while giving our team the chance to gather feedback as we tested new features and use cases to improve the results.

Even though it’s now in production, we still strongly recommend that you verify any critical details of an Izola answer using the Forrester source research below the answer. If you suspect that 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 available to Forrester Decisions, Forrester Market Insights, Forrester AI Access, 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.

What’s the difference between Izola and Forrester AI Access?

AI Access is a product offering, whereas Izola is a key feature available to AI Access license holders as well as all Forrester Decisions, Forrester Market Insights, Group Reader Access, and Reader Access Plus license holders.

Specifically, AI Access is a level of service within the Forrester Decisions and Forrester Marketing Insights product portfolio. AI Access license holders gain access to Forrester’s research, data, and webinars, with the Izola hub serving as their front door and homepage to get insights and advice backed by Forrester’s trusted research.

The new level of service provides the flexibility to expand access to Forrester’s deep insights and advice in a self-service model, without direct analyst engagement needed for everyone within an organization. Izola has been proven solid, stable, and time-tested to deliver trusted advice fast, beginning in October 2023 to the present day, thanks to client innovation, feedback, and cocreation throughout the process.

How should I use the Izola hub?

Use the Izola hub to make progress on your top initiatives faster with synthesized insights and advice from across Forrester’s reports and data. Here’s how:

• Ask for advice about your top initiatives.
• Get instant insights and advice from trusted research and data.
• View the source research to learn more.
• Copy answers for internal presentations.
• Rate the value of responses so we can improve.

How should I use Izola for reports?

Use Izola for reports to get instant summaries and converse with a specific research report. Here’s how:

• Summarize the report and get key takeaways instantly.
• Ask questions about the research.
• Jump to the source text or image.
• Copy answers for internal presentations.
• Rate the value of responses so we can improve.

What use cases is Izola designed to support?

Business and technology leaders can use Izola in a variety of ways to get the insights and advice they need to make progress on their top initiatives faster:

• Explain concepts: “Explain agentic AI and its implications for a business executive.”
• Make a case: “Write a business case on why my organization should invest in agentic AI.”
• Show data: “What is the forecast for global tech spending by technology category?”
• Track trends: “What are the top trends impacting B2B sales leaders?”
• Adopt best practices: “Give me the best practices for campaign management.”
• Advance maturity: “How mature is my marketing planning process?”
• Get strategic advice: “As a B2C CMO, how do I decide what CX metrics are best to track?”
• Take action: “How should digital leaders approach omnichannel transformation?”
• Help with writing: “Write an email to my team on the benefits of agentic AI for CX.”
• Find vendors: “Who offers the best CRM software?”

You can also use Izola to find analysts and their latest research on the topics and initiatives that matter to you:

• Analyst coverage: “What does Rowan Curran cover?”
• Analyst recommendations: “Which analysts cover explainable AI?”
• Latest research: “What’s the latest research on agentic AI?”

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

For now, Izola is not intended to answer questions about Forrester products or your contract with Forrester. Examples of use cases not yet supported by Izola include:

• 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:

Ask for advice, not reports. Izola excels at delivering insights across relevant research. Rather than asking for a list of reports, clarify your underlying need, then let Izola do the digging and synthesize its findings.

• Instead of: “Do you have research on marketing planning?”
  Try: “What should a B2B CMO consider when building a marketing plan?”
• Instead of: “Do you have research on CX measurement programs?”
  Try: “What are the characteristics of an advanced CX measurement program?”
• Instead of: “Do you have research on agentic AI?”
  Try: “Explain agentic AI and its implications for a business executive.”

Lead with your intended outcome. Outcome-oriented questions yield more targeted, actionable guidance.

• Instead of: “marketing capabilities”
  Try: “What capabilities do I need to strengthen to deliver a high-performing B2B marketing team?”
• Instead of: “Help me with martech strategy.”
  Try: “What steps should I take to optimize my martech stack to improve personalization in real-time campaigns?”
• Instead of: “Tell me about FinOps.”
  Try: “Explain how FinOps delivers cloud cost savings and other efficiencies.”

Add high-impact details. Including your role, industry, and specific area of interest in the question helps Izola deliver more relevant guidance and avoids generic answers.

• Instead of: “campaign messaging best practices”
  Try: “What should portfolio marketers do to make campaign messaging better resonate with B2B buyers?”
• Instead of: “digital experience”
  Try: “What is the future of digital experiences in banking?”
• Instead of: “AI infrastructure”
  Try: “ What are the leading AI infrastructure solutions and vendors?”

Let Izola spark your thinking. Use Izola’s generative capabilities to draft content such as emails or blogs.

• Instead of: “buying networks”
  Try: “Write an email to my team on buying networks and why they matter.”
• Instead of: “CX analytics”
  Try: “Write an email to my team on how to prioritize customer analytics initiatives.”
• Instead of: “agentic AI”
  Try: “Write an email to my executive team on the benefits and risks of agentic AI.”

Back to basics. Follow these guidelines for writing questions to receive accurate responses and improve your success with Izola:

• Ask an open-ended question vs. a “yes or no” question.
• Spell out acronyms and abbreviations.
• Check for spelling errors.

Does Izola replace Forrester’s existing search engine?

No, they are complementary. But many clients now prefer Izola because it provides them with the insights that they are looking for, along with a shortlist of source research. But Forrester’s search engine will continue to provide unique value when you’re looking for a comprehensive listing of reports, blogs, webinars, and podcasts.

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

No. While Izola generates custom insights and advice to your questions, remember that these responses 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?

Forrester developed Izola in-house using open-source technologies and foundational large language models (LLM) that do not perform or require any training using user data. Izola also uses a technique called retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) to produce insights and advice 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 response. You can review the top Forrester sources that Izola utilized to generate its insights and advice.

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

No. Izola strives to produce the best insights and advice 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, Izola will not alter the insights and advice in the response or the “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 responses generated from Izola sourced solely from Forrester content?

The insight and advice in Izola responses is based on Forrester reports and blogs published since January 1, 2018, and analyst bio pages. But given the nature of generative AI and use of an AI LLM, 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 that 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 to help service your account, we may internally review questions submitted via Izola and Izola’s answers. 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 consistently. While this functionality is not yet supported, it is something we plan to add in the future.