August 3, 2026 · AR & Analyst Industry Watch #58
In his prepared remarks, CEO and Chairman George Colony, stated:
“CV decreased 3% and wallet retention was flat. Client retention was down 1% but client count increased in the quarter. Total revenue decreased 10% with research revenue down 8% and non-CV businesses down 15%. Market uncertainty drove the consulting and events declines.”
Furthermore, in his prepared remarks, CFO Chris Finn, stated:
“In terms of our revenue breakdown for the quarter, research revenues decreased 8% compared to the second quarter of 2025, with revenue from research products down 7%, reprints down 12%.”
Those statements certainly paint a dark picture. But Q2 was not simply another bad quarter. There are credible signs that Forrester’s long decline may be stabilizing. Client count increased by 10, only the second quarterly increase in the past 18 quarters. Client retention improved to 77%, up from 74% a year ago. Research contract value declined just 0.7% sequentially, compared with a 2.4% decline in Q1. Forrester AI Access has generated approximately $10 million in bookings since launch, while management reported strong growth in AI users and prompts. And attendance at B2B Summit North America increased 9%.
Those are real positives and should not be dismissed. Look more closely, however, and nearly every one comes with an asterisk.
There is an old legal adage: “When the law is on your side, pound the law. When the facts are on your side, pound the facts. When neither the law nor the facts are on your side, pound the table.”
George Colony spent much of his prepared remarks pounding the table on AI — the technology trend, Forrester’s AI research, and AI themes from B2B Summit — rather than explaining how Forrester is fixing its business.
My analysis of Colony’s 1,275-word prepared remarks finds that only 28% were devoted to Forrester’s business performance and execution. Roughly half of those words were about Forrester’s own AI products, leaving surprisingly no discussion of sales execution, retention, events, client growth, and the other issues that will determine whether Forrester actually returns to growth.
Even the Forrester AI success story comes with an asterisk. Colony said:
“Forrester AI usage increased to new highs in the quarter, with total users up 33% in Q2 versus Q1, and up 69% year-over-year. Forrester AI prompts were up 58% in Q2 compared to Q1, and up 105% year-over-year.”
Those percentages sound impressive. But Forrester provided no absolute user or prompt numbers.
I call this PON — “percent over nothing.” Going from 200 users to 266 and from 20,000 to 26,600 both produce 33% growth. Without the numerator and denominator, AR teams and investors cannot judge the scale of adoption.
The same caution applies to Colony’s statement that Forrester AI has surpassed indexed search as the “dominant method” Decisions clients use to interact with the research database. Dominant by how much, across how many users and interactions? We don’t know.
Additional reading: Lusher Advisory: Research on Forrester. This directory brings together Lusher Advisory’s independent research on Forrester – including news, earnings, business model analysis, predictions, webinars, and more – in one place.
How Did Forrester’s “Future Influence” Metrics Fare in 2Q26?
What Will It Take to Deliver CV Growth by Year-End?
Can Forrester Cut Its Way to Growth? — Revisited
Forrester and its AI Strategy: Traction, but What Kind of Traction?
Reprints Down 12%: Are Vendors Voting with Their Dollars?
Is Forrester’s New Events Strategy Working?
Let’s compare notes.
Join the conversation about Forrester’s and Gartner’s 2Q26 earnings on AR Intelligence: Live | Quick Shots webinar. Thursday, August 6, 8:30 am PDT. Register here.
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