AI Takes the Stage at Opticon 2025: A Closer Look at Optimizely Opal

On September 10th, the Javits Center in New York became the stage for Opticon25, the biggest Optimizely event. Gathering thousands of marketers, digital innovators, and entrepreneurs together, Opticon provides an impactful platform for discussing AI, content, personalization, and shaping the future of customer experience. Of course, the UKAD team was there!

As always, Opticon25 offered a rich lineup of speeches and conversations filled with valuable insights and bold ideas, yet this year, AI clearly took center stage. With a strong focus on user experience, most talks revolved around integrating and optimizing Artificial Intelligence within digital workflows. From exploring GEO (Generative Engines Optimization) to adopting AI-first content strategies, the Optimizely community exchanged perspectives on advanced technologies and collaboration with major public LLMs to drive digital growth.

The highlight of every Opticon is the unveiling of new products and the exploration of the opportunities they bring. This year’s standout was, announced a few months earlier, Optimizely Opal, a powerful AI-driven orchestration tool built on Google Gemini. It offers an all-in-one experience through an intuitive chat interface that responds to natural language prompts. Intriguing, isn’t it? We think so too. Let’s take a closer look at what Optimizely Opal has to offer!

As mentioned before, Opal is an advanced AI assistant designed to orchestrate content and marketing processes. But it’s slightly different. Its key differentiators are:

• Brand awareness with data safety
  Marketers can fully tailor Opal to meet their unique brand needs by providing guidelines and customer data to generate original content and automate brand identity development. At the same time, data is not used to train the LLM and remains inaccessible to other users, thanks to the platform’s Gemini business account.

• Seamless workflow integration
  Opal is not an add-on or plugin; it is a natural part of Optimizely One, ensuring seamless integration with everyday tools and workflows.

• Advanced autonomous agents
  Opal’s agents are fully autonomous and proactive. Innovative logic allows them to act on human’s behalf without manual input, delivering a fully personalized workflow automation experience.

• Built-in toolset
  Opal includes hundreds of customizable, pre-designed tools suitable for a wide range of tasks: from content creation and localization to advanced data analytics, research, and campaigns orchestration.

• Autonomous operations
  Opal can operate inside Optimizely as efficiently as real content managers.

Opal has a simple yet effective user interface architecture. It consists of just five components that define how it’s used and how it works: Chat, Instructions, Agents, Tools, and Workflows. Its simplicity resembles collaboration with a human contractor, where you ask, provide instructions, and receive results.

Chat

Interactions with Opal take place in the chat using plain language. Users can build automations, give instructions, and set tasks without any technical knowledge. Simply ask, and Opal delivers actionable results while determining which tools and agents are needed to fulfill the request. It’s as natural as a regular conversation.

Instructions

Through a user-friendly setup dashboard, it’s easy to specify how, when, and where Opal agents operate with the tools, ensuring the system aligns with the brand strategy. This approach to AI fine-tuning requires no engineering skills and combines simple logic with powerful outcomes.

Agents

Opal’s agents act as virtual contractors who complete tasks. They interpret requests, select tools, and deliver consistent, ready-to-use results. While Opal comes with a large Agent Directory out of the box, custom agents can be created for specific tasks, providing unmatched flexibility in routine workflow automation.

Tools

By default, Opal includes a variety of tools that agents use to handle standard content and marketing tasks, such as content generation, file uploading, or web browsing. Like other components, tools can be customized to meet specific needs and align with the brand strategy. Together, these tools enable Opal to automate complex processes through designated workflows.

Workflows

Workflows are sequences of actions executed by multiple agents, either step-by-step or simultaneously. Using the visual editor, teams can create multitier chains to orchestrate complex processes, such as experiments and autonomous delivery.

Here’s how it works: when a user sets a task via simple chat, Opal identifies the appropriate agent, which completes the task according to the instructions. When combined into workflows, this system automates routine tasks, freeing time for creative work and brave innovations.

We don’t want to limit your creativity in using Optimizely Opal! It’s perfectly suited for content creation, media planning, analytics, and search optimization. Beyond that, Opal can serve as a powerful assistant for Project Managers, Marketing and Creative Team Leads, and Media Creators. After all, you can always ask Opal itself how to make the most of its capabilities for your unique needs.

And if you’re impressed by this new tool and want to implement it into your Optimizely-based platform, just ask UKAD!