How Optimizely's Opal AI Is Transforming Marketing with Agentic Automation
Jun 03, 2025 • 2 Minute Read • Andrea Goldstein, Senior Director, Digital Marketing
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Getting Started with Optimizely's Opal: A Step-by-Step Guide
Jun 05, 2025 • 4 Minute Read • Andrea Goldstein, Senior Director, Digital Marketing
Optimizely Opal just changed the game for marketers, content teams, and digital strategists, making it easier than ever to scale output with agentic AI without compromising on quality.
If you’re new to Opal, check out our intro article on what it is and how it’s already driving real productivity for marketing teams here.
This is your practical guide to getting started. We’ll walk you through everything you need to launch with Opal confidently, like assessing your current workflows, setting up instruction agents, and integrating Opal into your existing Optimizely tools.
Let's dive in on how to get started.
1. Self-Assess: Find Gaps Before You Fill Them
Let's get introspective. Before diving into what Optimizely and Opal can do for your organization, reflect on your team’s current workflows. Ask yourself:
- Which tasks take a lot of time but feel straightforward?
- Where do you wish you had more velocity—or any velocity at all?
- What high-value initiatives lack a clear owner or driver?
- Which processes could benefit from a more objective or unbiased approach?
- Where might outcomes improve if research, data, or supporting resources were driving the priorities?
A clear assessment of your current situation will help you identify the best opportunities for Opal to add real, measurable value.
2. Explore What Opal Can Do
After considering your potential needs, it's time to get familiar with what Opal brings to the table. Its core capabilities include:
- Content creation – Generate blog posts, product descriptions, social media content, and more
- SEO keyword suggestions – Optimize your content strategy with relevant, data-backed keyword ideas
- Brief generation – Quickly create campaign or content briefs to align teams
- Translation and localization – Adapt your content for global audiences with ease
- A/B test planning and results analysis – Let Opal help you design experiments and interpret outcomes
- Campaign personalization – Tailor messages and creative based on audience segments
Use this overview documentation as your starting point.
3. Turn on Opal in Your Environment
At some point, you should jump right in to play around and see what works for you. If you're using Optimizely One, confirm that your account has Opal access via opal.optimizely.com and log in with your standard OptiID. If you don’t see it, first make sure you're in the right organization from the dropdown. Make sure it’s set up for all the products you want to use within the digital experience platform (DXP).
If you don’t see it, you may need to:
- Enable it through your Optimizely admin portal (potentially with Admin support)
- Assign permissions for team members (consider a smaller group to start)
- Contact your Optimizely Customer Success Manager or support to activate
For the basics, like logging in and more, check out Optimizely's quick start guide to AI-powered marketing.
4. Add Instructions to Train Your Agents
You'll want to set up instruction agents to get high-quality, consistent output from Opal. These agents will guide Opal in responding to your prompts based on your brand's voice, formatting standards, and content preferences.
- First, choose from a variety of prebuilt agents available from Optimizely.
- Then, refine or customize them to suit your needs with preferred tone of voice, keywords, formatting, and language preferences
- Save these as templates so all AI-generated content is aligned with your brand and content guidelines.
Follow the recommended setup format for best results. See the detailed guide here.
5. Choose Your Starting Point
Now that your instructions are in place, you're ready to pick a tool and start using Opal. Opal integrates directly with several key tools in the Optimizely ecosystem:
- In the Content Marketing Platform (CMP), use Opal to draft briefs, write blogs, and translate content
- In the Content Management System (CMS), use Opal to suggest titles, meta descriptions, and optimize content for SEO
- In Web Experimentation, Opal recommends tests and analyzes results
Start small and pick a single project, like a blog campaign or a landing page. Let your insights from the first step guide you on where Opal can make an immediate impact. From there, you can expand your use based on results and team feedback.
Start by using Opal for a small project (e.g., blog campaign or landing page) and expand from there based on your introspective brainstorming in #1.
6. Kick Off with a Team Training
Host a quick 30-60 minute session to get your team up to speed. During the training, you can:
- Watch an Opal demo or video walkthrough
- Try a real task together (e.g., set up an instruction agent or draft a campaign brief)
- Review how Opal usage ties to your available credits
Kick-off may seem overwhelming to some, but the good news is that Opal is built for marketers, so even non-technical users can learn it quickly.
7. Plan What's Next Before Credits Run Out
Your Opal credits are limited and will expire by September. Make the most of them:
- Identify who on your team will benefit most from using Opal
- Map out long-term opportunities and use cases
- Estimate how many credits you'll need to support both short- and long-term goals
If your team is interested in extra support, we're here to help.
Reach out to learn more about partnering with our team. As an Optimizely Premier Platinum Partner agency, we can jump-start your use of AI to achieve massive progress for your team.