10 things Optimizely just told its partners about AI

I've spent the better part of two decades helping organisations navigate business change and digital transformation.

I've seen plenty of "platform revolutions" come and go. So when I say what I heard at Optimizely's Partner Kick-off in London genuinely stopped me in my tracks - I mean it.

The kick-off signalled a fundamental shift in how marketing and digital operations will run. And for the sectors I work with - utilities, manufacturing, pensions, membership organisations - the implications are significant.

Here's what was shared, and why it matters.

What Optimizely shared 

1. Opal is now the core product - not a feature. It's an agent orchestration platform that runs autonomous marketing workflows. 200 paid customers in 9 months. The 2026 target is 5x growth.

2. The ambition has shifted from "tool" to "operating system for marketing" - planning, creating, managing, optimising, and distributing content from a single platform.

3. Agentic workflows are the differentiator - not just AI-assisted editing, but multi-step agents that run automatically on a schedule or trigger. Forrester called this out specifically as what sets Optimizely apart.

4. CMS 13 is a platform-defining release - built on .NET 10, with AI embedded throughout, Visual Builder, GEO optimisation, and unified DAM. A World Tour of enablement is coming to London.

5. GEO (Generative Engine Optimisation) is now a real priority - as your customers use AI to research and compare suppliers, traditional SEO is no longer enough. Optimizely is building GEO natively into the CMS.

6. Stack consolidation is the commercial story - Forrester data shows companies migrating to Optimizely One save 25%+ on total martech costs. One platform replacing five.

7. The ROI is now provable - 79% faster experiment velocity, 54% faster campaign delivery, 80% more pages created. Business cases in the tens of millions for enterprise customers

8. Adobe and Sitecore displacement are explicit plays - Optimizely is recognised as a Leader across 9+ Gartner and Forrester reports. The competitive window is real.

9. AI compliance workflows are built for regulated industries - automated brand, legal, and compliance checks before human sign-off. Not bolted on. Built in.

10. Massive R&D investment is confirmed - 100 new hires dedicated to Opal alone, plus significant brand investment and a full rebrand in May.

3 things digital leaders in your sector need to act on now

In my experience, organisations that fall behind on digital optimisation do so because they didn't act on the right signals at the right time.

These are three signals worth acting on now.

If your team is still manually producing, reviewing, and publishing content across channels - you're losing time you can't afford. I've worked with teams across regulated sectors who thought their process was "fine" until we mapped it properly.

The bottlenecks are almost always bigger than anyone realises. Agentic workflows change this equation entirely.

Your customers - whether they're pension members, energy consumers, trade buyers, or association members - are increasingly using AI tools to find answers and make decisions.

If your content isn't structured for AI discovery, you're absent from conversations that used to be your territory. In sectors where trust and authority matter, this is not a small thing. The window to move first is open now.

3. Reassess your martech stack against what's actually being used.

One of the most consistent findings in the digital optimisation work I do is how much organisations are paying for tools that deliver a fraction of their potential. Industry data backs this up - only 33% of martech capabilities are genuinely utilised.

Before you renew or add, it's worth asking whether consolidation could cut cost, reduce complexity, and actually unlock more capability at the same time.

If you're already using Optimizely but not getting the value you expected, there's usually a faster path to impact than you think.

If you're on a platform that's slowing your team down, creating compliance risk, or just not delivering - let's explore whether there's a better way.