News
The Gist
- Strategic collaboration launch. Zeta Global partners with OpenAI to enhance Athena marketing agent.
- Beta expansion announced. Athena's Insights and Advisor applications now available to more enterprises.
- Enterprise efficiency impact. Marketing leaders can expect faster insights and campaign optimization, reducing manual analysis time.
Zeta Global wants OpenAI's models to transform its Athena marketing agent into a more intuitive tool for enterprise marketers navigating an increasingly complex conversational AI landscape.
The company announced the strategic collaboration on Jan. 5, at CES 2026 in Las Vegas. According to company officials, OpenAI models will support Athena's next development phase. Zeta also expanded beta access to Athena's first two agentic applications—Insights and Advisor—and plans to launch Athena to all customers by the end of Q1 2026.
The companies said they will align Athena's product roadmap with advances in OpenAI models. Zeta will also have early access to new OpenAI models and features.
Table of Contents
- Agentic AI in Real Enterprise Use
- Athena Agentic Applications
- Zeta Global Recent Activity
- Agentic AI Adoption Surges, With Challenges
- Zeta Global Background
Agentic AI in Real Enterprise Use
Athena is already transforming how our team works. Generating segment-based reports from a simple prompt and running ad hoc analysis in seconds has been a game-changer. Tasks that once required significant manual effort, like comparing performance across segments or identifying creative optimization opportunities, now happen instantly.
- Deborah Cook, vice president, data intelligence
TKO Group Holdings, Inc.
Athena Agentic Applications
Zeta asserts the two new applications aim to help marketers move from questions to answers faster.
| Capability | Description |
|---|---|
| Insights | Conversational analytics app delivering trends, audience data and dashboards |
| Advisor | Goal-driven optimization app that scans campaigns and recommends actions |
Zeta Global Recent Activity
Zeta closed 2025 with significant momentum driven by a major acquisition and AI product expansion. In October 2025, Zeta agreed to acquire Marigold's enterprise software assets—including Cheetah Digital, Selligent, Sailthru, Liveclicker, Grow and Marigold Loyalty—for up to $325 million.
The deal closed in late November, prompting raised FY-25 revenue guidance to $1.29–$1.30 billion. Initial FY-26 guidance projected revenue above $1.73 billion.
On the product front, Zeta's AI roadmap advanced rapidly: in March the company launched AI Agent Studio with pre-built agentic workflows. During Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday, platform usage surged 153% year-over-year and AI-agent activity climbed 25-fold.
Agentic AI Adoption Surges, With Challenges
Agentic AI adoption in marketing is surging, but integration complexity and data quality gaps are stalling enterprise-scale deployment.
Companies adopting AI in at least one business function increased from 55% to 72% between 2023 and 2024. ChatGPT users sent 5x more messages in 2025 than in 2024, totaling 18 billion weekly.
Despite rising adoption, most organizations struggle to operationalize agentic AI effectively. Agentic AI platforms are dissolving traditional software boundaries, but marketers have realized integration is no longer just about technology—it's about unifying disparate systems with human-in-the-loop workflows.
The primary obstacles include:
- Siloed proofs of concept with agents unable to communicate
- Fragmented workflows across marketing functions
- Choice overload from dozens of entry points
- Insufficient data quality undermining AI performance
The conversational AI market is accelerating toward $50 billion, driven by demand for answer-driven intelligence and automation. Nearly 70% of companies investing in conversational AI are simultaneously updating customer data strategies.
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Zeta Global Background
Founded in 2007 in New York City, Zeta Global targets enterprise chief marketing officers and senior marketing teams at large brands and agencies, particularly in sectors such as retail, travel, financial services and media. The company's Zeta Marketing Platform combines identity management, analytics and activation tools in a single environment.
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