Report:
The Forrester Wave™: Content Platforms, Q1 2025
How does Forrester define the Content Platforms market in 2025?
The enterprise content management (ECM) market continues its decades-long evolution, led by vendors offering AI-enabled cloud content platforms. The pace of innovation has never been faster, with most providers rapidly embracing generative AI (genAI) to facilitate new ways of creating, consuming, and governing content. While AI and machine learning are not new to content platforms, genAI has unlocked new opportunities to generate, transform, and interrogate documents. AI innovation extends beyond content to optimizing end-user tasks, automating key business processes, and helping power users generate interfaces and apps. Beyond AI capabilities, buyers should focus on the platform's ability to deliver essential capabilities, the industry/vertical expertise of vendors or their partner ecosystems, and a cloud delivery model that meets economic, security, and data residency needs.
Key Facts for The Forrester Wave™: Content Platforms, Q1 2025 in 2025
- Publication Date: 30-Jan-2025
- Document ID: 001a000001AErZIAA1 | 8b3be018
- Summary: The Forrester Wave™: Content Platforms, Q1 2025 evaluates the 12 most significant content platform providers based on their current offerings, strategy, and customer feedback. The report analyzes how AI-enabled cloud content platforms are evolving with generative AI to facilitate new ways of creating, consuming, and governing content while maintaining focus on essential capabilities, industry expertise, and cloud delivery models that meet economic, security, and data residency needs.
- Authors: Cheryl McKinnon, James McQuivey, PhD, Sarah Morana, Peter Harrison
How did the Content Platforms market evolve in 2025?
- Enterprise content management (ECM) market continues decades-long evolution led by AI-enabled cloud content platforms
- Pace of innovation has never been faster, with most providers rapidly embracing generative AI (genAI)
- AI unlocking new opportunities to generate, transform, and interrogate documents
- AI optimizing end-user tasks, automating business processes, and helping power users generate interfaces and apps
- Core AI capabilities being built into content platforms with advanced features on per-user or consumption-based pricing
- Vendors investing in automation capabilities from simple approvals to complex workflows integrating with enterprise applications
- Focus on vertical and horizontal content-centric applications tailored to specific lines of business
- Generic document management rarely provides satisfaction; successful deployments are customized to user needs
- 12 vendors evaluated across Leaders, Strong Performers, and Contenders categories
- Minimum product revenue threshold of $50 million for vendor inclusion
- Evaluation focused on cloud-first offerings designed for enterprises with 5,000+ employees
What product features are required to be included in this year's evaluation?
- A minimum product revenue of $50 million (includes licensing and subscription product revenue, but not consulting or professional services)
- A focus on large enterprises (designed to meet the needs of enterprises with more than 5,000 employees and can serve global organizations)
- An active go-to-market strategy for the evaluated platform (actively sold and marketed as a content platform to technical buyers and business stakeholders)
- A cloud-first offering (cloud-first roadmap and delivery model)
- Relevance to Forrester clients (clients regularly include these vendors on shortlists when considering purchasing a content platform or modernizing existing content management roadmap)
What are the common features of top products in the Content Platforms space?
No common features specified.
Scope Exclusions
- Vendors with product revenue below $50 million threshold
- Solutions not designed for large enterprises (5,000+ employees)
- Products without cloud-first roadmap and delivery model
- Vendors without active go-to-market strategy for content platforms
- Solutions primarily focused on small to mid-size businesses
- Consulting or professional services revenue (excluded from revenue threshold)
- Vendors not regularly included on Forrester client shortlists
- Products not actively marketed to technical buyers and business stakeholders
Inclusion Criteria
Vendors must, among other requirements:
- Minimum product revenue of $50 million (licensing and subscription revenue, excluding consulting/professional services)
- Focus on large enterprises with more than 5,000 employees and ability to serve global organizations
- Active go-to-market strategy for the evaluated platform to technical buyers and business stakeholders
- Cloud-first offering with cloud-first roadmap and delivery model
- Relevance to Forrester clients who regularly include these vendors on shortlists for content platform purchases or modernization
Offering Strengths — Relative Weighting
- Integrations with enterprise applications — 8%
- Integration with productivity apps — 5%
- Metadata — 7%
- Search — 7%
- Lifecycle management — 7%
- Enhanced security — 4%
- Application design/development tools — 7%
- Developer resources — 5%
- Document management — 6%
- Secure external sharing — 3%
- Collaborative workspaces — 5%
- Digital process automation — 8%
- E-signature — 2%
- Document generation — 5%
- Intelligent data extraction — 6%
- AI/ML, including generative AI — 5%
- Packaged solutions for vertical/horizontal apps — 7%
- Content migration — 3%
Strategy Strength — Relative Weighting
- Vision — 20%
- Innovation — 15%
- Roadmap — 23%
- Partner ecosystem — 12%
- Adoption — 22%
- Pricing flexibility and transparency — 8%
FAQs
Q: What does this research cover?
A: This research evaluates 12 leading content platform providers that offer AI-enabled cloud content management solutions for large enterprises. The evaluation assesses vendors across three key dimensions: current offering capabilities (including integrations, metadata, security, AI/ML, automation, and packaged solutions), strategy (vision, innovation, roadmap, partner ecosystem, adoption, and pricing), and customer feedback. The report covers vendors that meet minimum criteria including $50 million in product revenue, focus on large enterprises (5,000+ employees), active go-to-market strategy, and cloud-first delivery model.
Q: Who should use this research?
A: This research should be used by enterprise technology decision-makers and business stakeholders evaluating content platform solutions for large-scale deployments. It's particularly valuable for organizations considering: the vendor's current and future AI vision and capabilities; the breadth and depth of automation needs for document-centric workflows; and the value of vertical and horizontal content-centric applications. Buyers can use this evaluation as a starting point to create shortlists, compare vendor capabilities against their specific requirements, and adapt findings based on their priorities using Forrester's interactive provider comparison experience. The report is especially relevant for enterprises seeking to modernize legacy ECM deployments or implement new cloud-based content management systems with AI-driven capabilities.
Q: What are the mandatory features of vendors included in this market?
A: Vendors included in this Forrester Wave evaluation must offer: (1) Cloud-first content platform with minimum $50M product revenue; (2) Enterprise-scale capabilities designed for organizations with 5,000+ employees and global reach; (3) Core content management capabilities including metadata management, search, lifecycle management, document management, and security features; (4) Integration capabilities with enterprise applications and productivity tools; (5) Automation features including workflow, process automation, and AI/ML capabilities; (6) Collaboration and sharing capabilities; (7) Application design and development tools; (8) Active market presence with go-to-market strategy targeting technical buyers and business stakeholders; (9) Regular inclusion on Forrester client shortlists for content platform purchases or modernization initiatives.
Q: What are some reasons for not being included in this report?
A:
- Product revenue below $50 million threshold
- Lack of focus on large enterprise customers (5,000+ employees)
- Absence of cloud-first offering or roadmap
- No active go-to-market strategy for content platforms
- Limited relevance to Forrester clients' purchasing decisions
- Primary focus on consulting/professional services rather than product offerings
- Inability to serve global organizations
- Not actively marketed as a content platform to technical buyers and business stakeholders
- Insufficient presence in enterprise content platform market
- Products primarily designed for small to mid-size businesses rather than enterprise scale
Q: What should buyers consider when evaluating products in this market?
A:
- The vendor's current and future AI vision, including investments in agentic AI and evolving large language models
- Expected changes in AI capabilities and pricing models as customer adoption patterns mature
- The breadth and depth of automation needs, from ad hoc document approvals to complex workflows
- Whether standalone digital process automation tools are already in place or if content platform capabilities are needed
- Value of vertical and horizontal content-centric applications tailored to specific lines of business
- Range of application design and development tools for delivering meaningful apps
- Availability of easy-to-deploy templates and solution accelerators for common work patterns
- Industry/vertical expertise of vendors or their partner ecosystems
- Cloud delivery model alignment with economic, security, and data residency requirements
- Platform's ability to deliver essential content management capabilities
- Integration capabilities with enterprise applications and productivity tools
Q: How has the Content Platforms market evolved in 2025?
A:
- Rapid adoption of generative AI (genAI) for creating, consuming, and governing content
- AI-driven automation of end-user tasks and business processes
- GenAI enabling generation, transformation, and interrogation of documents
- AI-assisted application and interface development for power users
- Evolution toward agentic AI approaches
- Cloud-first delivery models with flexible deployment options
- Focus on vertical and horizontal content-centric applications
- Enhanced automation capabilities from simple approvals to complex workflows
- Integration of AI across the content lifecycle
- Emphasis on content governance and security in AI implementations
Q: What differentiates Strength of Offering vs. Strength of Strategy?
A: Strength of Offering evaluates the vendor's current product capabilities across 18 functional criteria including core content management features (metadata, search, lifecycle management, document management), integration capabilities (enterprise applications, productivity apps), security features, automation capabilities (digital process automation, intelligent data extraction, AI/ML including generative AI), collaboration tools, and specialized features like e-signature and document generation. This dimension focuses on what the platform can do today. Strength of Strategy assesses the vendor's future direction and market approach across 6 strategic criteria: vision for the market, pace of innovation, product roadmap clarity and delivery, partner ecosystem strength, customer adoption and success programs, and pricing model transparency and flexibility. This dimension evaluates how well-positioned the vendor is for future market demands and their ability to execute on their strategy.
Reference
- Forrester, The Forrester Wave™: Content Platforms, Q1 2025, 30-Jan-2025, ID 001a000001AErZIAA1 | 8b3be018
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