Key Findings from the Forrester Total Economic Impact™ study on Writer

Inefficient processes, high costs, and compliance challenges are significant pain points for many enterprises. Promises of transformative AI are made to business leaders and decision-makers, but the reality often falls short. According to our 2025 enterprise AI adoption report, 73% of companies are shelling out at least $1 million a year on generative AI. Yet only a third of them are seeing any real payoff. Boston Consulting Group found similar sobering results — only 25% of companies are actually getting what they hoped for.

So where are the companies seeing real results, and how are they doing it? 

At Writer, our end-to-end AI platform delivers on the promise of AI with tangible results for some of the world’s biggest enterprise companies.

To get a clearer picture of the potential ROI that companies can achieve by partnering with Writer, we commissioned Forrester Consulting to conduct a Total Economic Impact™ (TEI) study. They talked to some of our customers to get a detailed view of the financial benefits, costs, and risks of using Writer. Find out how a composite organization representative of interviewed customers with experience using our enterprise-grade AI solution not only delivered a significant ROI but also boosted efficiency and supported data-driven decision-making.

How companies achieved a 333% ROI and $12.02 million NPV with Writer

When evaluating a major tech investment, companies look for compelling evidence that the solution will deliver substantial returns, improve operational efficiency, and align with their strategic goals. They want to see clear, measurable outcomes that justify the cost and effort, ensuring the technology will make a meaningful impact on their business.

Forrester’s TEI study reveals that a composite organization representative of interviewed customers with experience using Writer delivered a 333% ROI and a net present value of $12.02 million. These measurable results might seem like fiction to enterprises that have only experienced disappointment and POC purgatory, so let’s look at how these numbers were calculated.

Total benefits

Over the three-year period, the total benefits, risk-adjusted and discounted at 10%, amount to $15.63 million. This includes quantified benefits such as:

• Labor efficiencies: $10.0 million from faster processes and improved time to market.
• Agency cost avoidance: $5.0 million from reduced reliance on external agencies.
• Improved compliance and brand standards: $100,200 from faster review times and better adherence to brand guidelines.
• Faster onboarding: $56,400 from quicker new hire ramp-up.
• Legacy environment savings: $492,400 from decommissioning other AI tools and saving on maintenance costs.

Total costs

Of course, to reap these benefits, there are some costs involved. But how long do enterprises need to wait to see a return on their investment? According to our 2025 enterprise AI adoption report, which surveyed 800 US enterprise leaders, 62% of executives think it will take at least three years for their company to see a return on investment from generative AI. Writer proves this idea wrong.

The payback period for customers in the TEI study was less than six months. The total costs over the same period — again, risk-adjusted and discounted at 10% — total $3.61 million. Here’s the breakdown:

• Subscription costs: $1.7 million for professional services, custom agent creation, and user licenses.
• Implementation costs: $1.8 million for integrating and expanding the use of Writer.
• Training and discovery: $67,565 for onboarding and ongoing training of new users.

The net benefits, which are the total benefits ($15.63) minus the total costs ($3.61), amount to $12.02 million over three years. So yes, these impactful levels of ROI are possible. But not without the right vendor, change management, and reconstruction of core processes.

Delivering more efficient, in-house processes with less costly tools

Forward-thinking companies turn to Writer because the cost savings directly result from improved processes. Want a more efficient workforce, the ability to keep things in-house, and a lighter tech stack? Writer is the solution.

200% improved labor efficiencies

Writer improved labor efficiencies for teams by 200%, which is where the bulk of that 333% ROI comes from. Interviewees shared that they noticed the most changes in the reduced time for creation, faster task completion, and an overall enhancement in team performance. Instead of being bogged down by routine tasks, teams can focus more on strategic initiatives that drive real business growth.

One interviewee, the vice president of digital content strategy and operations in the financial services, explained how the quicker you can deliver campaign content, the quicker you can drive leads.

“How many ways can you say the same thing? Well, Writer can say it a hundred ways in three seconds without compromising quality.” – VP of Digital Content Strategy and Operations, Financial Services.

50% reduction in agency scope

When internal teams have more efficient processes, they can tackle more projects in-house, reducing their reliance on external help. The same vice president in the financial services industry did some simple math to show exactly how much that can save teams.

“If you had an agency publishing 1,000 words a day, charging $280 per 1,000 words published, 1,465,000 words would have cost our organization about $407,680 and would have taken the agency nearly four years. Instead, we were able to take it in-house because we could do it faster.” – VP, Digital Content Strategy and Operations, Financial Services.

One full-time equivalent (FTE) freed up in legacy environment savings

Because Writer is an end-to-end AI platform, teams that adopt Writer usually decommission other legacy tools. One senior manager of artificial intelligence in the software industry said enterprise-wide tool consolidation led to six-figure savings.

By consolidating their toolkit, Writer minimizes the number of licenses required and saves the IT team valuable time.

A senior vice president of product management and innovation in the healthcare industry explained how their team initially opted to build their own AI tools. The highly regulated healthcare industry has such specialized knowledge and high standards for data privacy, meaning most AI platforms can’t cater to all its needs. 

But the DIY process was all-encompassing, requiring significant involvement from multiple team members. It diverted valuable resources from other high-priority initiatives. The team found it hard to scale, experienced iterative challenges, and delayed product launches that hurt revenue. Switching to Writer — which has tailored solutions for payors, providers, and pharmaceutical organizations — ultimately led to significant cost and time savings.

Reducing review cycles and accelerating onboarding

Maintaining high standards and operational efficiency is crucial for any business. But onboarding new team members and conducting laborious compliance checks can drain productivity. Writer accelerates review timelines and gets new hires up to speed much faster so that teams can focus on revenue-generating activities.

85% reduction in review time

Writer speeds up the review process by reducing the time it takes for stakeholders and subject matter experts to review content by 85%. This is made possible through its real-time style guide and automatic compliance checks.

Writer flags any noncompliant terms and provides immediate suggestions for corrections, ensuring that all content adheres to your brand standards. This minimizes the risk of publishing noncompliant content and saves teams a significant amount of time. Previously, these steps were often unattainable due to the constraints of time and resources, but Writer makes it all possible.

The senior manager of artificial intelligence in the software industry highlighted that Writer reviewed 1.4 billion words for brand standards. This allowed them to consistently speak in one authentic voice, with the most up-to-date brand messaging.

“We sound like one person. That is considerably hard for a huge company to achieve, especially as we innovate quickly with new products. We not only get everyone on the same page, but we also apply best practices to product messaging. We’re using Writer to teach us how to write better, which is a whole other level of AI that I don’t think people have really thought through yet.” – Senior Manager of Artificial Intelligence, Software Industry.

65% acceleration in new hire ramp-up

Onboarding new hires can be a lengthy process, but Writer accelerated it by 65%. This shaved two weeks off a previous three-week onboarding period. Writer helped new employees quickly get up to speed with their brand, style, content, and projects. This reduced the time it takes for new hires to become fully productive — allowing them to focus on more strategic tasks and build relationships from the start.

A senior marketing writer and team lead in the software industry shared an impactful example of a new employee’s accelerated onboarding time thanks to Writer.

“I would say she was fully onboarded and working at capacity within two months,” they said. “And historically, it takes our organization over six months to get similar roles fully onboarded.”

Looking beyond the numbers at unquantified benefits

Numbers and KPIs don’t capture every aspect of business value. Writer brings some important benefits that are harder to quantify: 

• Revenue from decreased time to market: Writer empowers teams to launch campaigns and complete core processes with greater agility. That freed up time allows teams to respond to customer needs and market changes. 
• Increased customer satisfaction and use of services: Improvements in quality and consistency improve brand reputation and foster customer trust. This leads to higher customer satisfaction and increased loyalty, driving more frequent and longer-term use of your offerings.
• Improved security and compliance: Using Writer’s family of Palmyra LLMs helps ensure customer data is secure and used responsibly. This is important for maintaining customer trust and compliance in highly regulated industries.
• Upskilling and training: Writer’s efficient processes train employees to write higher-quality content by learning from the feedback and improvements provided by the platform. This leads to new learning and upskilling opportunities for employees, allows them to focus on higher-priority projects due to time savings, and results in changes to open positions as the platform automates repetitive tasks.

Experience unmatched levels of ROI with Writer

Without the right infrastructure, organizations struggle to build, scale, and supervise AI agents. But as the TEI study reveals, enterprises can achieve significant levels of ROI — with Writer.

Writer empowers enterprises to create their AI HQ — where IT and business collaborate to build, activate, and supervise AI agents together without compromise, all in one place.

Learn more about the benefits and costs of our end-to-end enterprise AI platform by downloading the Forrester TEI study.