NEW YORK -- September 01, 2026 -- Optimizely unveiled Virtual Teammates on Aug. 31, 2026 at its Opticon conference, a new class of AI coworkers built to take on defined marketing roles instead of responding to individual prompts. The launch includes five role-specific digital coworkers: Chief of Staff, SEO & AI Search Analyst, Marketing Analyst, Personalization Strategist, and CRO Manager. Each retains organizational context over time and operates across marketing tools under its own identity and permissions.
81% of B2B Marketing Leaders Juggle Multiple Disconnected AI Tools Weekly
A global Optimizely study of more than 2,000 B2B marketing leaders found that 81% personally switch between two or more disconnected AI tools each week, including 19% who use four or more. Optimizely said Virtual Teammates are built to function as ongoing members of the marketing team rather than an additional standalone tool marketers have to operate.
Chief of Staff Teammate Tracks Follow-Ups and Delivers Recurring Briefings
The Chief of Staff role helps marketers prepare for meetings, track follow-ups, monitor competitive intelligence, and deliver recurring briefings. The SEO & AI Search Analyst monitors search and AI visibility, audits AEO performance, identifies opportunities before acting, and reports afterward on what was completed.
The Marketing Analyst converts acquisition, content performance, and conversion data into decision-ready insights. The Personalization Strategist identifies personalization opportunities, builds campaigns, and monitors performance to recommend next steps. The CRO Manager analyzes experiments and performance data to flag areas for improvement and recommend actions for marketers to investigate.
Marketers Hire Ready-Built Teammates From a Role-Based Directory
Organizations access the roster through a directory, where they can hire and customize ready-built teammates with role-based expertise instead of building agents and workflows from scratch. Teams can adjust each teammate's responsibilities in plain language and connect it to the systems it needs to perform its work. A Chief of Staff, for example, can be configured to deliver a weekly briefing or share background details ahead of a meeting, while an SEO teammate can continuously monitor changes in search visibility and surface issues that need attention.
Optimizely CEO Calls the Launch Its Biggest Innovation Since Agents
"Marketers want to grow their business, not spend time re-explaining it to multiple AI tools," said Alex Atzberger, CEO of Optimizely. "A Virtual Teammate learns how your organization works once, then keeps going. This is the most exciting innovation since the introduction of agents."
Scoped Permissions Tie Every Teammate Action to a Traceable Identity
Optimizely built individually scoped permissions and oversight controls into each Virtual Teammate, letting companies set where human review is required. Every Virtual Teammate operates under its own identity, and its activity ties back to that identity for visibility and an audit trail. The rollout extends Optimizely's existing Agent Platform, moving beyond isolated prompts and tasks toward persistent, proactive support across marketing workflows.