The Total Economic Impact™ Of Adobe Acrobat Studio

Increase In Insight Generation From Documents

Evidence and data. Interviewees noted that Adobe Acrobat Studio has all of the capabilities of Acrobat Pro to create, convert, edit, and sign documents. Users could quickly share files across shared folders and collaborate in real time on documents. Acrobat Studio’s AI-driven capabilities, such as Acrobat AI Assistant and PDF Spaces, build on this foundation to further enhance document management for knowledge workers.

Interviewees also reported that AI Assistant in Acrobat Studio can automatically generate in-depth summaries of users’ files (e.g., transcripts, slide presentations, scans, etc.) and provide traceable citations. A creative director at a media and entertainment company reported that these features helped cut the time needed to digest lengthy PDFs by two-thirds. The creative director said: “When a client gives us a script or folder of plot details for a project, a PDF can be dozens of pages for us, and we need to be quick in reviewing it. Acrobat AI Assistant can summarize for us who is the main character, what is their goal, what are they trying to achieve. … It helps me be more efficient and spend more time on creative thinking.”

A senior system engineer at an insurance organization said that a key factor in adoption of Acrobat Studio was that it provided citation tracing, which enabled users to quickly verify the information they receive and minimize hallucinations. The senior system engineer said: “Acrobat AI Assistant showing you how information is retrieved by providing citations is a huge advantage over comparable AI chat solutions. You can click on that citation to double-check the text it’s pulling from to see if it’s being cited correctly; you don’t have to do a separate search to verify the information.”

Top use cases for AI Assistant among surveyed users included understanding and interrogating documents (76%) and generating multidocument summaries (61%). For these use cases, respondents saw an average efficiency gain of 32% and 35%, respectively.

PDF Spaces enables users to add upwards of 100 files of various formats (e.g., PDF, .txt, etc.) to a centralized shared workspace to query insights, generate summaries, compare docs, and collaborate with colleagues on files and notes. Among surveyed users of PDF Spaces, at least half of respondents saw between 11% to 20%higher efficiency improvement in document review and feedback with the solution.

The senior system engineer at an insurance organization shared a use case where they created a PDF Space to evaluate two different software solutions. They added documents related to each vendor to the PDF Space and used AI Assistant to evaluate and create a list of pros and cons for each solution. With PDF Spaces that list evolved into a decision matrix that colleagues could add to, and this matrix helped inform the software selection while cutting the time spent on this review process in half.

Modeling and assumptions. For the composite organization, Forrester assumes the following:

• One-fifth of Acrobat Studio users at the composite organization handle large volumes of documents. For this study, we define large volumes as handling up to 100 documents per week. Reviewing, information finding, and summarizing these documents takes 6 hours on average per user per week, or a little over an hour each day.

• Acrobat Pro, AI Assistant, and PDF Spaces’ support in summarizing documents, sharing insights, and facilitating collaboration on reviews reduces time spent on these processes by 25% in Year 1. As more employees adopt the solutions and best practices are developed at the organization, efficiencies improve to 30% in Year 2 and 35% in Year 3.

• The rest of Acrobat Studio users at the organization handle an average volume of documents. For this study, we define an average volume as five to 10 documents per week. These documents require a half-hour each week to review and collect insights.

• The fully burdened hourly rate for an Acrobat Studio user is $40.

• A productivity recapture rate of 50% is applied to time savings to account for time that is rededicated to more work, while other time is spent on longer work breaks or less late nights.

Risks. Differences across organizations that may impact benefits include the following:

• Organizational demographics, including job role, use cases, and number of employees.

• Number of documents to manage and time spent on creating, reviewing, collecting information, and summarizing documents.

• The hourly rate of employees.

Results. To account for these risks, Forrester adjusted this benefit downward by 15%, yielding a three-year, risk-adjusted total PV (discounted at 10%) of $1.1 million.

Acceleration In Content Production

Evidence and data. Alongside knowledge work, interviewees and survey respondents leveraged Adobe Acrobat Studio’s generative AI capabilities to streamline the creation of both internal and external visual content from existing resources.

In PDF Spaces, users at interviewees’ and respondents’ organizations were able to query Acrobat AI Assistant to take files uploaded to a workspace and generate professional-grade presentations, infographics, or a visual that communicated their insights. According to the director of analytics at a hospitality organization, PDF Spaces helped simplify putting together a deck for a marketing pitch. The interviewee said: “We’re launching a new initiative, and you have the business, analysis, partnerships, marketing and business teams. Having a workspace to share information and documents, and to bring it all together in a holistic report, streamlines our decision-making.”

The same interviewee added that, with PDF Spaces, there was no need to get  someone to volunteer to assemble the deck or task individual contributors with creating their own slides. The group involved in the initiative also used Acrobat Studio to adjust the length, level of detail, and target audience for the presentation to ensure that it met expectations. The interviewee said: “The presentation was 85% to 90% finished after it was generated [by PDF Spaces]. It’s almost like you have the manuscript for a book done and only need to hand it off to the editor.” This improved collaboration because colleagues could start iterating and sharing feedback on a draft of the presentation almost immediately. The interviewee also used the same workspace to create one-pagers summarizing the presentation for executives or workers who missed the meeting.

With Adobe Express, nondesigners at the interviewees’ organizations avoided waiting for support from design teams to fulfill content requests. Templates built in the solution were based on existing content from their organizations so that any new deliverable carried over on-brand formatting and colors. Survey respondents who use Adobe Express agreed that it accelerated content production. Seventy-one percent of respondents agreed that it enabled nondesigners to create their own content, and 62% agreed that it reduced reliance on design teams for content creation.

Not only was content creation democratized with Adobe Express but the quality and volume also improved. A senior project manager at a conglomerate organization said: “With the templates that we build in Express, our nondesigners can avoid an hour of work on individual pieces of content by making text and small elements editable while preserving the same overall design. Instead of putting together a campaign with a bunch of disparate looks in the content, we can maintain brand consistency.” Survey respondents reported that the percentage of content and assets that were templatized for reuse grew from 38% to 50% with Adobe Express.

Modeling and assumptions. For the composite organization, Forrester assumes the following:

• Among Acrobat Studio users at the organization, 100 individuals (20%) leverage the solution on a daily basis for content planning and development work, such as building presentation decks and one-pagers. This increases to 300 (30%) in Year 2 and 600 (40%) in Year 3 as best practices are developed and more teams incorporate it into their workflows.

• On average, these users spend an hour each week working on this internal content.

• Acrobat Studio enables users to become 20% faster in creating presentations in Year 1 and 30% faster in Year 3 as they grow in maturity with the solution to effectively generate presentations.

• The number of Adobe Express users grows from 100 in Year 1 to 300 in Year 3, representing 20% of Acrobat Studio users.

• Nondesigners at the composite organization spend half a day per week, or 4 hours, creating visual content with Adobe Express.

• Production of content by nondesigners accelerates by 30% in Year 1 by using templates with Adobe Express. This increases to 40% by Year 3 as the number of templates increases and users are more familiar with Adobe Express.

Risks. Differences across organizations that may impact the benefits include the following:

• The complexity of presentations and size of the team involved in providing feedback on them.

• The amount of content that users need to create and how long it took to create that content before the adoption of Acrobat Studio.

• Organizational demographics, including job role, use cases, and number of employees.

• The hourly rate of employees.

Results. To account for these risks, Forrester adjusted this benefit downward by 15%, yielding a three-year, risk-adjusted total PV (discounted at 10%) of $810,000.

Faster Turnaround of Document And Content Reviews

Evidence and data. With Adobe Acrobat Studio, interviewees and survey respondents reduced time spent reviewing content to ensure it followed branding guidelines and any language included was in compliance with internal and/or regulatory guidelines.

Over half of survey respondents (54%) used Acrobat AI Assistant for reviewing and comparing documents. According to interviewees, documents reviewed included contracts or policies that contained required language. To ensure that language was properly carried over to their in-progress document they shared past versions or similar files with AI Assistant and asked it to compare them. If there were any inconsistencies in language, such as missing words or alterations between versions, AI Assistant automatically flagged that for users. These insights helped users to accelerate finalization, distribution, and sign-off of documents.

Interviewees made templates within Adobe Express so that content retained on-brand colors, formatting, and any other essential assets while allowing words to be changed or images to be swapped out. Content produced by nondesigners did not require as much scrutiny for review because the amount of possible variation and what needed inspection was limited by design. Survey respondents affirmed this trust in Adobe Express, with 76% agreeing that it strengthened brand consistency across content and 37% also agreeing that it reduced the time needed for legal review of content.

Modeling and assumptions. For the composite organization, Forrester assumes the following:

• The full-time equivalent of 10 employees at the organization review content and documents, allocating 10% of their bandwidth to the work.

• Time spent on document and content reviews falls by 70% in Year 1 as teams use Acrobat Studio to accelerate the process and templatize content. Time savings increase to 80% in Year 3 as the number of templates grows.

• The fully burdened hourly rate for an employee who is responsible for compliance reviews is $50.

Risks. Differences across organizations that may impact the benefits include the following:

• The number of documents and content that require review.

• Complexity of the documents and content requiring review.

• The hourly rate of employees.

Results. To account for these risks, Forrester adjusted this benefit downward by 15%, yielding a three-year, risk-adjusted total PV (discounted at 10%) of $164,000.

Improved Employee Revenue Generation

Evidence and data. For interviewees and survey respondents where revenue generation was a key business goal, the impact of productivity and time efficiencies on revenue was tangible with Adobe Acrobat Studio. For example, better content creation quality was cited as a key contributor to revenue gains by 62% of Acrobat Studio user survey respondents. Faster collection and sharing of insights meant knowledge workers had more time to review information, reach consensus, and work toward higher-quality output.

Seventy percent of survey respondents reported that faster time to market enabled by Adobe Express was a factor influencing revenue growth. In accord with this finding, the senior project manager at a conglomerate organization said: “In the past we would enter a request for the design team to refresh images for a campaign, and it would take five to seven days. Now we have a person who can take the template and update the copy or colors on the image and have it done within a day. Clients on our partner side are much happier being able to have an asset in one-fifth of the time it would have previously taken.”

This interviewee added that marketers having content ready for deployment sooner in campaigns meant they could realize value from it earlier and build upon that performance. In addition, the templates enabled them to increase the refresh rate of content so that they regularly had new material to engage customers and drive additional business.

The same interviewee continued that, among sales teams, users expedited customer presentation creation by collating customer information, contracts, and email information through Acrobat AI Assistant and PDF Spaces while leveraging Adobe Express for visuals. Salespeople were able to respond faster to customer demand with these presentations, accelerating timelines for closing on opportunities.

Modeling and assumptions. For the composite organization, Forrester assumes the following:

• The average annual revenue per employee across the organization is $250,000. The organization may have passive revenue generation that may not be directly generated by employees; this is only the average revenue each employee is responsible for annually.

• Among employees handling large volumes of documents, the outcome of faster time to insights is 1.88% additional revenue generated in Year 1. This percentage reaches 2.63% by Year 3 as they reach more maturity with AI Assistant and PDF Spaces. Similarly, users handling an average volume of documents with Acrobat Studio see an incremental gain in revenue delivered as well, going from 0.16% in Year 1 to 0.22% in Year 3.

• Among employees planning and developing content with Acrobat Studio, by having presentations ready to share and move projects along, they generate more revenue by 0.25% in Year 1 and 0.38% in Year 3. For nondesigners creating visual content in Adobe Express, the increase in content they produce leads to them generating 1.50% more revenue in Year 1 and 2.00% more by Year 3.

• A standard TEI assumption for the composite organization is to apply a pre-tax unadjusted operating profit margin of 10% to revenue results.

Risks. Differences across organizations that may impact the benefits include the following:

• The average revenue delivered by employees to their organization.

• Their bandwidth and level of efficiency or productivity improved with Acrobat Studio.

Results. To account for these risks, Forrester adjusted this benefit downward by 20%, yielding a three-year, risk-adjusted total PV (discounted at 10%) of $533,000.

Cost Savings On Content Management And Creation

Evidence and data. Adobe Acrobat Studio’s end-to-end document management capabilities enabled interviewees and survey respondents, who had been leveraging multiple solutions for document workflows (e.g., processing, signatures, etc.), to consolidate licensing. The chief information officer at a public sector organization said: “We consolidated two [document workflow solutions] for management purposes. It was easier to manage one contract, and at an enterprise level with Adobe we got a better picture of who was using the tools so we could appropriately scale our spend.” This interviewee added that each of the two previous document workflow solutions had required an administrator who spent one-quarter of their time overseeing the platform, time that was rededicated to Adobe, which required less oversight given its solutions’ integrated ecosystem.

Seventy-eight percent of survey respondents reported that using Adobe Express saved $30,000 in content creation costs. Since nondesigners could iterate on templates to make content, third-party resources often brought in for support were reallocated to other projects that needed help. In addition, organizations no longer had to pay for licensing to non-Adobe creative solutions for nondesigners to build content since they could lean on Adobe Express.

Modeling and assumptions. For the composite organization, Forrester assumes the following:

• Each Acrobat Studio user has approximately $100 in costs that can be avoided with Acrobat Studio.

• Avoided costs include licensing for third-party solutions, management costs, and any outsourced support.

Risks. Differences across organizations that may impact the benefits include the following:

• Third-party solutions that the organization can stop using and the amount the organization pays for those solutions.

• The level of reliance on outside support to help with managing documents and content production.

Results. To account for these risks, Forrester adjusted this benefit downward by 20%, yielding a three-year, risk-adjusted total PV (discounted at 10%) of $193,000.

Unquantified Benefits

Interviewees mentioned the following additional benefits that their organizations experienced but were not able to quantify:

• Increased trust in AI insights and comprehension of documents. Users’ trust in insights derived from Acrobat Studio’s AI Assistant and PDF Spaces grew based on their ability to understand the structure of static documents and files, effectively summarize them, and, critically, provide interactive citations with traceable references linked to their location in the document. Among survey respondents who use AI Assistant, 64% agreed that they trusted insights from the solution and only 8% didn’t trust its insights. Trust in AI Assistant helped to influence revenue growth, with 67% of these survey respondents citing greater level of insight from documents as a factor that contributed to revenue generation. Because users trusted the insights, they became increasingly actionable for helping to direct decision-making.

• Enterprise control and security in protecting documents. Fifty-eight percent of survey respondents agreed that they improved document security and compliance with Acrobat Pro. The solution includes password protection, encryption, and single sign-on to safeguard documents. Acrobat Pro serves as the underlying architecture for Acrobat Studio, which continues Adobe’s approach to protecting organizations’ documents. Acrobat Studio adds AI-powered capabilities, but customer data and information from documents are not used for model training or put at risk of third-party exposure. The AI-based PDF Spaces within Acrobat Studio is a closed environment where only users with permission to access the workspaces can review the materials. AI Assistant analysis of documents scans only documents that have been fed to it, and no commingling with third-party sources takes place, which keeps data safe. With Adobe Express, templates generated for content are based only on materials fed to it to ensure branding consistency and are not shared externally.

• More connected workflows enhancing employee collaboration. Interviewees said that the ability of AI Assistant and PDF Spaces to take different kinds of files, including spreadsheets, presentations, and large documents, and blend them into searchable insights broke down barriers for collaboration between colleagues. Team members from different groups like human resources, finance, sales, and marketing could quickly share information and feedback on projects to foster conversation and drive productivity.

Flexibility

The value of flexibility is unique to each customer. There are multiple scenarios in which a customer might implement Adobe Acrobat Studio and later realize additional uses and business opportunities, including:

• Cost-effective localization of content. Interviewees had yet to use Acrobat Studio’s AI Assistant to translate content to different languages, including English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Brazilian Portuguese, and Japanese. For survey respondents using the translate feature, the amount of content and assets that were translated grew from a little over one-fifth of content to more than one-third. This contributed to a median annual cost savings of $32,000 on localization. As Acrobat Studio adds more language options for localizations, there may be more opportunities for translation and cost efficiencies for organizations.

• Streamlined collection of e-signatures. According to survey respondents who use Acrobat Pro, 69% agreed the solution helped with their ability to collect e-signatures. Instead of getting paperwork in front of an individual to sign off on a document, Acrobat Pro users could now embed digital signature boxes into PDFs and send them out for collection. The chief information officer at a public sector organization said: “The transition to Adobe for signatures has greatly improved accuracy, efficiency, and accessibility for both our department and our incoming employees. A lot of our staff and clients don’t necessarily have a laptop or access to one, so having a mobile-friendly option removed a ton of barriers for us to carry out work.”

• Audio narration of content. Acrobat Studio offers the ability for AI-powered audio narration of long or complex documents to make them easier for employees to digest. Interviewees and survey respondents had yet to take advantage of this feature but were interested in using it to help users digest content when they didn’t have the time to read through it.

Flexibility would also be quantified when evaluated as part of a specific project (described in more detail in Total Economic Impact Approach).