If CES has become the annual proving ground for AI ambition, Zeta Global is using CES 2026 to make a pointed case: the future of marketing software won’t be dashboards—it will be agents.

Zeta Global (NYSE: ZETA) announced a full slate of CES 2026 activity centered on Athena by Zeta, its conversational, “superintelligent” AI agent designed specifically for enterprise marketers. The company will host private demos, executive conversations, and a high-profile fireside chat featuring tech analyst Dan Ives and Zeta co-founder and CEO David A. Steinberg, all aimed at reframing how marketers interact with data, decisions, and AI.

The message is clear: Zeta doesn’t see AI as a feature layered onto marketing clouds. It sees AI as the interface.

Why Athena matters in a crowded AI marketing market

The marketing technology landscape is already saturated with AI claims. Nearly every major platform now promises smarter targeting, automated insights, and predictive performance. What Zeta is pushing with Athena is a different idea—that marketers shouldn’t have to navigate complex tools at all.

Athena by Zeta is positioned as a conversational AI agent that sits on top of the Zeta Marketing Cloud, allowing marketers to ask questions, get recommendations, and take action using natural language. Instead of toggling between analytics dashboards, campaign managers, and segmentation tools, Athena is meant to collapse those workflows into a single, intelligent interaction layer.

That approach mirrors a broader enterprise trend. As AI agents become more capable, vendors across SaaS categories are racing to replace traditional UIs with conversational systems that reduce friction and speed decision-making. Zeta’s CES presence suggests it believes marketing is ready for that shift now—not in five years.

A CES fireside chat focused on outcomes, not hype

Zeta’s headline CES event takes place Tuesday, January 6, from 4:00 to 5:30 PM PT at the company’s Athena suite inside the ARIA Resort & Casino. Dan Ives, one of Wall Street’s most visible technology analysts and Chairman of Eightco, will lead a fireside chat with Steinberg focused on the future of Athena and AI-powered marketing.

According to Zeta, the discussion will explore how conversational intelligence is changing the marketer–technology relationship, removing operational friction and improving ROI. That framing is deliberate. As CMOs face mounting pressure to justify AI investments, the conversation is shifting away from experimentation toward measurable business impact.

The session will be recorded and shared on Ives’s X account the following morning, extending its reach beyond CES attendees and into the broader enterprise and investor audience.

Trust and transparency enter the AI conversation

One notable theme emerging from Zeta’s CES programming is trust. While many AI platforms emphasize speed and automation, Zeta is aligning Athena with enterprise-grade governance and accountability—an increasingly important differentiator as brands deploy AI deeper into customer engagement.

“As Chairman of Eightco, our mission is clear: put trust at the center of enterprise AI,” said Ives, framing the discussion around outcomes and long-term value rather than novelty. That perspective resonates in a market where marketing leaders are wary of opaque AI systems that can’t explain decisions or comply with data governance requirements.

For Zeta, positioning Athena as both powerful and responsible may be key to adoption among large brands that need AI to scale—but can’t afford reputational or regulatory missteps.

Demos, media exposure, and the C-suite audience

Beyond the fireside chat, Zeta will use CES to keep Athena in near-constant rotation. As an official CES sponsor, the company will host daily demos and client meetings in its Athena suite throughout the week, giving marketers hands-on exposure to the platform.

Steinberg will also appear at CES C Space on Tuesday, January 6 at 2:45 PM PT in an interview with James Kotecki, a media executive known for translating complex technology stories into executive-level conversations. The interview will be live-streamed across CES’s YouTube, X, LinkedIn, and Facebook channels, then archived on CES.tech and YouTube.

Later in the week, Steinberg is scheduled to speak at ADWEEK House on Wednesday, January 7, where he’ll walk through the evolving AI-enabled marketing landscape and deliver an exclusive Athena demo. That appearance puts Zeta squarely in front of brand marketers and agency leaders who are actively evaluating how AI will reshape campaign execution and customer engagement.

Reading the strategic signals

Zeta’s CES strategy reveals more than just a product showcase. It signals how the company sees the next phase of MarTech competition unfolding.

First, AI agents are becoming the front door to enterprise platforms. Vendors that fail to simplify complexity risk being sidelined by tools that do.

Second, thought leadership matters again. By anchoring its CES presence around conversations—not just demos—Zeta is betting that CMOs want context, clarity, and conviction as much as features.

Finally, timing matters. With budgets tightening and scrutiny on AI ROI increasing, Zeta is making its case early that Athena isn’t experimental—it’s operational.

Whether that vision resonates will depend on how effectively Athena delivers on its promise of higher ROI and lower friction. But CES 2026 will make one thing hard to miss: Zeta wants to lead the conversation about what AI-powered marketing actually looks like in practice.

Get in touch with our MarTech Experts.