Zeta Global stock rose between 7% and 9.4% in after-hours trading Monday, according to various financial reports following a strategic OpenAI partnership announced at CES 2026. The AI marketing cloud company revealed the collaboration will power its Athena superintelligent agent for enterprise marketing.
OpenAI models will support Athena's next development phase, creating more intuitive experiences for marketing professionals. The integration provides voice-activated answers and an adaptive interface within Zeta's marketing platform, according to company statements.
Zeta expanded beta access to Athena's first two agentic applications, Insights and Advisor, citing "unprecedented early demand." Insights delivers conversational analytics for instant trend access, while Advisor recommends or automatically executes marketing actions based on business objectives.
"We've formed many partnerships throughout Zeta's history, but none will be more instrumental than the one we are embarking on with OpenAI," said David A. Steinberg, Zeta Global's Co-Founder, Chairman, and CEO. The collaboration aligns Athena's product roadmap with advances in OpenAI models, potentially giving Zeta early access to new AI features.
OpenAI Chief Commercial Officer Giancarlo 'GC' Lionetti stated, "Zeta shows how advanced AI moves beyond insight and into action. By working together, we are bringing agentic intelligence directly into everyday marketing workflows."
The partnership announcement follows positive results from Athena's Early Access Program, which included TKO Group Holdings, the parent company of UFC and WWE. Zeta plans to launch Athena to all customers by the end of the first quarter of 2026.
Athena, first introduced at Zeta Live in 2025, adapts to each user's goals and working style, transforming questions into actionable answers. The system brings answer-driven intelligence directly into marketing workflows, reducing data navigation time for enterprise teams.
The stock movement reflects investor enthusiasm for AI partnerships in the marketing technology sector. Zeta's collaboration positions the company to leverage OpenAI's generative AI advancements for enterprise marketing applications at scale.
