How Zeta Global’s AI Leaders Are Shaping the Future of Marketing Technology

AI Driving the Next Wave of Innovation at Zeta 

At Zeta Global, AI is helping marketers be more proactive. Rather than asking themselves “What happened?” they now ask, “What should I do?” — instantly. 

Earlier this year, the company built its Zeta Answers, an AI-powered intelligence framework that goes beyond passive analytics and instead provides marketers with actionable recommendations to help identify, prioritize and act on growth opportunities.

“The Answers framework has been transformative,” Melissa Weil, senior director of data cloud project management, said. “By combining predictive modeling with automation, it reduces decision latency and helps marketers act faster and smarter.” 

Zeta Global spent 2025 prioritizing where to focus its use of agentic AI, with leaders like Weil at the helm. Vice President of Data Cloud Strategy Evan DeCastros also plays a key role in shaping the company’s AI strategy by overseeing the custom analytics the company runs for its clients and building out scaled solutions.

According to DeCastros, every engineer on his team and across the company plays a direct role in deciding how the company embraces AI. 

“Engineers shape the next AI investments by continually innovating and pushing things forward,” he said. 

This commitment to innovation, coupled with a responsible AI framework and a data-driven approach to measuring progress, enables Zeta Global’s technologists to push the boundaries of what’s possible for the business — and marketing technology as a whole. 

Engineers at Zeta Driving AI Strategy From the Ground Up

Engineers play a direct role in deciding which AI tools the company experiments with, and how that technology is leveraged to help clients.

One example of this is the creation and tracking of agents that help internal teams monitor their automated processes, Vice President of Data Cloud Strategy Evan DeCastros said.

“On a day-to-day basis, we work with so many different clients and have automated data processes in place to help them get access to insights in real time,” he said. “Identifying a smarter and easier way to monitor our back-end processes is critical, so we can make sure we are providing the information our clients need at the speed they require.”

Of course, any AI tool is tested rigorously before implementation and dependency, DeCastros said.

“AI tools are guided by their creators and are only as powerful and precise as the parameters built into them, so it’s important to have multiple stages of review and testing by different internal groups to ensure that standards are being kept up to par and that functionality is as desired,” he added. 

To gauge the success of new tools, DeCastros’ team monitors various hard key performance indicators, such as time saved or usage counts. But there are softer KPIs that are important to follow, too.

“Success can be direct, such as a client gaining access to important information by using an AI agent, or it can be indirect, like freeing up resources to continue innovating in other areas,” DeCastros said. “In analyzing the success of AI implementations, it’s important to consider both.”

So, which types of individuals are well-suited to drive AI innovation at Zeta Global? According to DeCastros, he’s seeking out well-rounded technologists with business-side experience, as it’s essential to blend contextual and technical skills when creating new solutions. 

“A big piece of reaching AI milestones is making AI useful and usable for our clients,” he said. “You need to be able to put yourself in external stakeholders’ shoes and anticipate the questions they will ask. That context is critical to the building and preparation phase and therefore needs to be something that our engineers and analysts are capable of doing, on top of the technical work.”

“A big piece of reaching AI milestones is making AI useful and usable for our clients.”

Those who join DeCastros’ team can expect to be key drivers of success, paving the way for continuous discovery and innovation. 

“Decision-makers may not know what’s possible until they see something made possible, and that happens as a result of a constant push to find new use cases and create new solutions,” he said. “Investments can often be a direct result of seeing the power of those new solutions in action.”

Related ReadingMeet 2 Women Engineers Thriving in Their Field — and Inspiring Others

Inside Zeta’s Data Cloud Team and the AI Features Shaping Marketing

According to Melissa Weil, senior director of data cloud project management, the successful launch of Zeta Answers exceeded expectations. 

“Strong collaboration between engineering and product teams, combined with reusable components from prior builds, allowed us to accelerate development without compromising quality,” she said. 

What makes the Answers framework such a game-changer? It provides clients with a variety of dynamic new capabilities, like identifying engagement trends and intent shifts, and then suggesting specific actions such as sending a message, adjusting ad spend or targeting a segment — all without waiting for manual interpretation. 

“We’re adopting agentic AI to power features like the Executive Intelligence Hub and enhance Leading Indicators by combining multiple agents for richer, proactive insights,” she said.

When it comes to measuring the success of new solutions like the Answers framework, Weil’s team tracks two KPIs in particular: adoption and execution. 

“If users actively engage with AI-driven features and execute against those recommendations, it signals real value,” Weil said. “We also monitor time-to-action to measure impact beyond usage.”

“If users actively engage with AI-driven features and execute against those recommendations, it signals real value.”

On Weil’s team, engineers play a pivotal role in the product development process, identifying technical feasibility and scalability early on. She said that it’s common for engineers’ insights on model performance and infrastructure constraints to inform which AI initiatives the company decides to pursue, underscoring their importance in driving Zeta Global’s mission forward. 

That’s why her team looks for “high-agency innovators” who are capable of working at the intersection of data science, product strategy and experimentation. 

With Zeta Global’s continued focus on AI innovation — agentic AI, in particular — those on Weil’s team have endless opportunities to do more for the business while building enriching careers for themselves in the process. 

“We’re looking for people excited to push boundaries and who are unafraid to learn from failure,” Weil said.

Frequently Asked Questions