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Optimizely's Opal AI: A bright spark or just more AI hype?

Optimizely's new Opal AI suite promises to revolutionise marketing workflows, but is it a genuine leap forward or just the latest wave of AI hype? As an Optimizely Gold Partner, we delve into Opal's features to see if it truly delivers on its promises.

Adam Griffith
Adam Griffith

01 June 2025

7 minute read

Right then, the AI wave continues to surge through the tech landscape, and if you're in marketing, you've likely seen a deluge of tools promising to revolutionise your world. Optimizely has been riding this wave for a little while now with its Opal AI suite, recently rolling out its latest enhancements. It's now pitched as a powerful "agentic AI" woven throughout the Optimizely One platform.

As an Optimizely Gold Partner, we have a keen interest in what Optimizely is bringing to the table. We’ve built countless successful digital experiences for our clients using Optimizely’s tools. But partnership doesn't mean blind faith. Our job is to cut through the buzzwords and see what this really means for marketers in the trenches – those of you trying to get great campaigns out the door, personalise experiences, and actually prove your ROI. So, is Opal a genuine game-changer, or just another shiny object chasing the AI trend? Let’s have a closer look.

What’s the big deal with Opal AI anyway?

Optimizely isn’t just talking about a simple AI writing assistant here. It’s touting Opal as a suite of "AI agents" – think specialised digital helpers that can understand context, use tools within the Optimizely One platform (like the Content Marketing Platform (CMP), Content Management System (CMS), and Web Experimentation), and even automate multi-step tasks.

The idea is that Opal draws on a heap of information: your existing content, campaign data, experiment results, your brand guidelines, and even Optimizely's own best practices. It uses Google’s Gemini models under the bonnet. The promise? To help marketing teams work faster, create more relevant content, and make smarter, data-backed decisions without drowning in dashboards. Sounds pretty good on paper, doesn’t it?

How Opal actually works: a peek under the bonnet

Before we dive into the potential applications, it’s worth understanding a bit about how Opal is designed to function. Essentially, Opal operates as an agentic AI assistant by combining three core components:

  1. Context: This is crucial. Opal aims to tap into a rich pool of information. This includes your organisation’s specific data – like existing content assets, performance metrics from past campaigns, customer data, and brand guidelines. It also draws on Optimizely’s broader domain knowledge and best practices gleaned from years in the digital experience space.
  2. AI services: At its heart, Opal leverages powerful AI models, including Google's Gemini large language models (LLMs) and other machine learning capabilities. These are the engines that drive the content generation, analysis, and other smart features.
  3. Agentic capabilities: This is what sets it apart from simpler AI tools. Opal is designed with the ability to:
    1. Understand and reason: To interpret your requests and the available context.
    2. Use tools: To interact with different parts of the Optimizely One suite (CMP, CMS, Web Experimentation, etc.) to perform actions.
    3. Remember: To maintain context across interactions.
    4. Plan: To break down complex requests into manageable steps and orchestrate workflows.
Optimizely Opal diagram

So, the idea is that Opal isn't just responding to a single prompt; it's more like a digital team member that can understand a broader goal, access the necessary tools and information, and then take a series of actions to help you achieve it.

Opal in action: where could it shine for marketers?

Let's get practical. How might Opal actually help day-to-day?

Taking the pain out of content creation (CMP):

Imagine you need to spin up a new campaign for a product launch. Opal can draft an entire campaign brief, suggest initial content pieces, or even generate first drafts of blog posts or social media updates based on your core messaging.

Business benefit

For busy teams, this could be a massive time-saver, helping to overcome that dreaded blank page and get initial ideas flowing much quicker.

Delivering smarter, more personalised content (CMS)

This is where things could get interesting. Opal aims to help create and deliver content that’s more relevant to individual users. For instance, it might suggest different headline variations for a landing page based on different audience segments, or automatically apply relevant tags to images as they’re uploaded to your Digital Asset Management (DAM) system.

Business benefit 

The potential for deeper, AI-assisted personalisation at scale is compelling, as is the efficiency gain in managing assets.

Optimizely Specialized Agents

Giving your experimentation programme a nudge (Web Experimentation)

We all know that coming up with fresh A/B test ideas can be a challenge. Opal can analyse a live web page, identify areas for improvement, and propose specific test ideas complete with hypotheses. It can also help summarise experiment results.

Business benefit 

This could help teams break out of testing ruts, discover new optimisation opportunities, and get to insights faster.

The excitement is palpable, but let’s keep our feet on the ground

Alright, so there’s definitely some intriguing potential here. But as with any new technology, especially one evolving as rapidly as AI, a healthy dose of caution is warranted.

  • Agentic AI – how much leash should we give it? The idea of AI agents taking action on your behalf sounds efficient, but it also raises questions about control and oversight. Where’s the crucial human checkpoint? We wouldn’t want an AI going rogue and publishing unvetted content, would we?
  • The context conundrum: Opal’s strength is supposedly its ability to use context. But what if your existing data, assets, or documented brand guidelines are a bit of a dog’s breakfast? AI can’t magically fix a flawed foundation. How sophisticated is it really at understanding nuanced brand voice beyond a set of rules?
  • The spectre of sameness: If every marketer starts using similar AI tools to generate content, do we risk a tidal wave of generic, uninspired material? True creativity and unique brand positioning still require that human spark.
  • The nitty-gritty – learning curve and true integration: Optimizely promotes a seamless experience across Optimizely One. But how straightforward is it for marketing teams to actually configure, customise, and manage these AI agents and workflows? Will it really feel like a natural extension, or another complex system to learn?
  • Opening the ‘black box’: When Opal suggests a content angle or an experiment, how transparent is its reasoning? Marketers will want to understand the 'why' behind the AI's suggestions, not just blindly follow them.
  • AI is a tool, not your strategy: It’s crucial to remember that Opal, like any AI, is there to augment human intelligence, not replace it. Critical thinking and strategic direction must still come from your marketing team.

The Luminary perspective

As an Optimizely Gold Partner, we’re genuinely excited to see how Opal evolves. We’re already getting our hands dirty, exploring its capabilities and figuring out how it can deliver real value for our clients. The promise of streamlining workflows, unlocking new levels of personalisation, and speeding up the experimentation cycle is massive.

However, we’re approaching it with our eyes wide open. The demos always look slick, but the true test is in the real-world application and the tangible results it delivers. Can it consistently produce high-quality, on-brand outputs? Will it truly make marketers’ lives easier without adding undue complexity? These are the questions we’ll be looking to answer.

We believe the most successful applications of AI will be those that combine the power of the technology with human insight and strategic oversight. It’s about making your smart people even smarter and more efficient, not trying to automate everything for automation’s sake.

Piqued your interest? Request a demo!

If what you've read about Opal AI sounds like it could benefit your organisation, we'd be happy to help you explore it further. Reach out to us at Luminary, and we can arrange a personalised demo to see how Opal could fit into your marketing operations.

I'm using a different tech stack. Help!

Not an Optimizely user, or wondering how AI is impacting the broader CMS and DXP landscape? We’ve got you covered. Take a look at our recent article on How AI is revolutionising the CMS landscape for a wider view. And, of course, if you need tailored advice on navigating the ever-changing world of digital experience platforms and AI, don't hesitate to get in touch with the team here at Luminary for further advice and direction.

Adam Griffith
Adam Griffith

01 June 2025

7 minute read

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