AI agents: Changing the way you use AI (for the better)
Imagine if you could have an intelligent assistant at your fingertips; one that analyzes data, generates content, understands your brand, does all the boring things you don't want to...
Enter: AI agents.
Get ready to say goodbye to mundane tasks and hello to a whole new level of efficiency, innovation, and happy marketing. And no, we're not joking—here's everything you need to know (including more about Optimizely's own AI agents).
What is an AI agent?
An AI agent is a software program that uses AI (go figure) to perform specific tasks without the need of human intervention.
But "how do AI agents differ from basic automation", we hear you ask. Well, unlike basic automation tools that rigidly follow pre-define scripts, AI agents are dynamic, adaptive and can learn from instructions and past data.
They can analyze complex information, generate content, and provide personalized recommendations—all to empower us humans to make more informed decisions and streamline our workflows.
☝️ Stick that on your resume, artificial intelligence.
The benefits of AI agents in marketing
Okay, so what does all this have to do with you? Here are the key benefits to using AI agents within your marketing strategy:
- Increased efficiency and productivity: Reduce repetitive, mundane tasks so marketers can focus on high-value work.
- Enhanced creativity: Gain new ideas and insights that align with brand guidelines by using AI as a creative partner (and save time ideating as a result).
- Data-driven insights: Get quick analysis of campaign results, operational metrics, and other performance metrics, and make data actionable for your team.
Go from generalist to guru with your AI knowledge, and make sure you're using it in the right way; check out The AI playbook: A practical guide to AI for marketers.
How Optimizely's AI agents accelerate marketing workflows
Next big question: where can you find AI agents? Well, for one, AI agents are manifested in Opal, Optimizely's AI assistant—contributing to a consistent experience and UI across Optimizely One.
Yep, that's right. You can benefit from increased efficiency, productivity, and creativity (and all that good stuff) with Opal.
For ultimate personalization to your brand and customers, marketers can feed Opal with:
- Custom instructions
- Brand information
- User-specific preferences
You know, as opposed to ChatGPT's generic, robotic and very-obviously-AI-generated spiel when you ask it to write you a blog post. By adding custom instructions, brand info, and user-specific preferences, you'll get a much better output that isn't something we've all heard before.
What makes Optimizely's AI agents extra special
- Specialization for use cases: AI agents excel by addressing specific marketing tasks, eg. content generation and campaign planning
- Easy integration into workflows: Agents are embedded within the existing tool suite to use whenever and wherever you need them (so you click X on some of those tabs now)
- Brand awareness: AI agents can follow company-specific guidelines to maintain brand consistency, saving you a bunch of times with edits and checks
- Execution of tasks: Opal's AI agents can use your commands to execute tasks independently, ie. You can tell your project management AI agent to look for overdue workflow steps every Sunday and send a reminder to the person assigned to the task
- Continuous updates: AI agents improve with time and will automatically update when new information becomes available—so long, boring admin
Practical use cases for Optimizely's AI agents
Here's a little glimpse at just a few of the possibilities that could come from Optimizely's AI agents—just click for a zoom:
Campaign planning: Opal assists with planning, taking inputs on objectives, and target audiences, then generating a brief or campaign steps
Content generation: Opal ideates, drafts, and refines content based on past data and brand guidelines, bringing you relevant ideas quickly.
Project management: Opal is an organization pro and tracks tasks, deadlines and priorities to make sure you're always up to speed.
The future of AI agents (AKA what the *eff* are they up to next?)
What's not to love about the idea of accelerating workflows by taking advantage of embedded AI assistants? More support, amplified human creativity, and more time for strategy—yes, please.
No surprises here but, at Optimizely, we're pretty obsessed with the idea of AI agents. So much so, that we have the vision to create agent-based workflows where Opal's capabilities will expand to support other marketing functions, like brand compliance checks and data insights across products.
Intrigued? Find out all about your new pal, Opal now.
