Zeta Global (ZETA) Athena AI Agent Reaches 50% of Super-Scaled Clients

On its third-quarter earnings call on 2026-11-09, Zeta Global Holdings Corp. (ZETA) gave the first usage figures for Athena, its voice-enabled AI agent: more than 50% of super-scaled customers are now monthly active Athena users[1]. Management credited Athena with the revenue beat against guidance, but did not break out how much revenue it contributed.

What Zeta sells and where Athena fits

Zeta Global (ZETA) is a marketing technology company listed on the New York Stock Exchange. Its core product, the Zeta Marketing Platform, combines the consumer identity and behavioral data the company has built up with its own algorithms to help large brands find, win and keep customers across email, text messaging, social media, the web and connected TV. Revenue comes mainly from fees enterprise clients pay based on platform usage and campaign volume.

Athena is an AI assistant built into that platform, which management calls a "super agent." Marketers ask questions by text or voice, and Athena draws on data inside the platform to handle marketing planning, performance analysis and campaign building, turning its answers directly into actions on the platform. Its users are Zeta's enterprise clients. Athena is a product feature Zeta sells to customers and sits inside the company's core business, so any benefit shows up first in client usage and in Zeta's own revenue.

From concept to broad use in one year

Athena has moved from concept to use at scale as a single product, with the same name and workflow throughout. On the 2025-11-04 call, management first introduced Athena as a conversational assistant, describing it only in visionary terms[3]. The company then launched the product as an internal beta. On 2026-02-24, management described it as a platform capability that can listen, reason and act alongside marketers in real time[2]. Athena entered limited production and opened to all platform clients on 2026-03-24. The next two calls still described only what it could do. On 2026-11-09, the company counted Athena usage by customer for the first time and tied it directly to revenue performance[1].

Usage: adoption among the largest clients is widening

The latest quarter first shows wider penetration. By Zeta's measure, more than 50% of super-scaled customers now use Athena every month, up from just over 40% the prior quarter[1]. The company tracks Athena usage across three activities: planning, analysis and campaign building. Campaign builds by clients on the platform more than doubled quarter over quarter, and time spent on the platform rose more than 50% quarter over quarter[1]. These are usage metrics showing Athena is used more often by large clients; the time-on-platform figure covers the whole platform and is not limited to Athena itself.

Revenue: what management attributes to Athena

Athena's financial effect on Zeta shows up in revenue, especially in ARPU and net revenue retention among super-scaled customers. The chief financial officer said third-quarter revenue came in $22 million, or more than 5%, above the midpoint of guidance, driven by higher Athena adoption and usage compared with the second quarter. Quarterly ARPU from super-scaled customers rose 22% year over year, accelerating from 17% growth in the prior quarter[1]. Year to date, net revenue retention among clients that adopted Athena was more than 500 basis points above the company overall[1].

The logic of this path is that Athena lowers the effort clients need to plan and build campaigns, and more campaigns mean more spending and usage on the platform.

What the numbers do not show

• The company did not break out the revenue amount Athena contributed.
• The retention gap compares an adopter cohort with the company overall. Larger, faster-growing clients are more likely to adopt Athena in the first place.
• Zeta's overall revenue growth of 46% includes Marigold and political revenue. Excluding those, growth was about 30%, and it cannot be attributed to Athena as a whole.

What is confirmed and what to track

What can be confirmed is that Athena has moved from a product introduction to a factor Zeta management names when explaining revenue growth among its largest clients, and that the share of super-scaled customers using it rose markedly within one quarter. How much revenue Athena alone brings in remains unquantified. Whether the monthly active share keeps rising next quarter, and whether the company discloses a like-for-like comparison of ARPU or net revenue retention between adopting and non-adopting clients, will determine whether this reading holds.

Application assessment

• Athena Marketing Command Center | Business position: core business | Stage: limited production | Scope: multiple businesses or regions | Value type: revenue growth

Sources

[1] Drillr · Zeta Global Holdings Corp. (ZETA) · 2026-11-09 · Earnings call

Quote: "On revenue, over 50% of super-scaled customers were monthly active Athena users, up from just over 40% last quarter."

[2] Drillr · Zeta Global Holdings Corp. (ZETA) · 2026-02-24 · Earnings call

Quote: "Athena enhances the Zeta Marketing Platform that is an intelligent operating system for growth, one that can listen, reason and act on behalf of marketers in real time."

[3] Drillr · Zeta Global Holdings Corp. (ZETA) · 2025-11-04 · Earnings call

Quote: "Athena is our AI conversational, superintelligent agent that becomes the intelligent operating system for our clients' businesses and ultimately for their lives."