Optimizely & Deloitte Digital back AI marketing push

SOFIAH NICHOLE SALIVIO

News Editor

Optimizely has partnered with Deloitte Digital to develop AI-led marketing programmes for brands, targeting organisations that are struggling to turn AI spending into measurable marketing results.

The collaboration combines Optimizely’s tools for experimentation, personalisation and AI with Deloitte Digital’s expertise in marketing transformation, creativity and human-centred design. The two companies have also produced an “AI Blueprint for Marketing Leaders” to help businesses adopt AI across marketing operations.

The deal reflects a wider problem for marketing teams as businesses increase spending on AI tools but fail to link those investments to customer response or commercial performance. Many companies need more than software deployment, particularly when legacy systems and existing workflows make change harder.

Under the arrangement, clients will be offered a structured process from strategy to execution, including experience design, changes to content supply chains and a redesign of marketing operating models.

For large organisations, such projects often require changes to teams and processes as well as technology. The partnership is intended to give clients a phased route to implementation rather than introducing isolated tools into existing systems.

Optimizely, which sells digital experience software to marketers, is seeking to strengthen its position in a market where AI is increasingly being built into content, commerce, testing and personalisation products. Deloitte Digital, part of the broader Deloitte network, advises companies on customer experience, marketing, commerce and service transformation.

The tie-up comes as vendors and consultancies try to close the gap between executive interest in AI and the operational changes needed to use it effectively. In marketing, that often means changing planning, content creation and campaign delivery processes, while agreeing on how success will be measured.

Jessica Dannemann, Chief Partner Officer at Optimizely, said the partnership is designed to connect AI technology with strategy and organisational change, helping companies scale AI use and deliver measurable business growth.

Marketing workflow

The collaboration focuses on embedding AI into day-to-day marketing work rather than treating it as a standalone add-on. That suggests both companies see adoption challenges as organisational as well as technical, especially for businesses trying to connect content production, customer data and campaign execution.

Deloitte Digital said the aim is to help marketing leaders redesign how teams plan, create and deliver digital experiences. The emphasis is on workflow and operating models, where many companies have found AI pilots difficult to scale.

Perrine Masset, Global Marketing Domain Leader at Deloitte Digital, said marketing leaders need a clearer path to value rather than more AI tools, with the focus on embedding AI into everyday workflows to drive measurable growth.

Optimizely said its broader platform spans content management, content marketing, experimentation, commerce, personalisation and analytics. The collaboration with Deloitte Digital indicates it wants consulting support around those products as customers look for practical ways to apply AI across multiple parts of the marketing function.

Deloitte Digital has framed the partnership around business outcomes rather than software replacement alone. That is likely to appeal to larger companies seeking to modernise customer-facing operations without rebuilding their marketing technology estates all at once.

Both groups are positioning the collaboration around measurable growth, but its immediate significance lies in the model they are proposing: a joint offer that combines software with advisory work on process, design and organisational change. In a market crowded with AI products, that may prove more relevant to companies still trying to work out how those tools fit into everyday marketing practice.