AI agents for marketing: What they can do and how to build them

I've always wanted a little robot helper of my own. Not the kind that automatically vacuums your floor and terrifies your dog. More like the one from Bicentennial Man (without the existential crisis and tears). 

AI agents are making that a reality. They're software teammates that don't just follow commands but take initiative. Tell them your goal, and they'll figure out and execute the steps to get there.

For marketers, that shift is huge. Instead of juggling half a dozen tools to manage campaigns, write copy, or chase analytics, AI agents can do the work for you—and talk to each other while they're at it. Think of them as your marketing department's behind-the-scenes crew, quietly coordinating your campaigns, optimizing performance, and feeding you insights while you focus on strategy.

Here's everything you need to know about AI agents for marketing. 

Table of contents: 

• What are AI agents in marketing? 

• Benefits of using AI agents for marketing

• 3 examples of AI agents for marketing

What are AI agents in marketing? 

AI agents in marketing are systems that can perform specific marketing tasks on your behalf. Unlike traditional AI tools that wait for you to prompt them, AI agents can take action on their own. All you have to do is give them a goal—like "draft weekly email newsletters about trending topics in [industry]" or "run a daily SEO analysis of my website"—and they'll handle the execution. 

If the idea of being able to hand off your less-than-exciting tasks to robots sounds too good to be true, it's not. You can start building your own AI marketing agents with Zapier Agents. Have them work independently, or connect multiple agents together to orchestrate your own agentic AI workflow.

And because Zapier connects with thousands of apps, you can also set your agents up to automatically take actions whenever something happens in one of those apps. For example, when a new product campaign launches, you can set up a series of AI agents that can pull in target audience data from your CRM, generate platform-specific ad copy and visuals, and publish campaigns across any platform, including LinkedIn, Meta, and Google Ads.

Benefits of using AI agents for marketing

AI agents do more than just shave a few hours off your to-do list. Thoughtfully stacked together, they execute powerful workflows that learn and optimize with each output, so you can focus on strategy instead of logistics. Here's what happens when you use AI agents for marketing. 

• Scale strategy without adding headcount. Traditional marketing growth often means adding more people to manage campaigns, channels, and reporting. But AI agents open a more scalable path forward. They can run multiple campaigns at once, test creative variations, and fine-tune messaging or targeting in real time—all without the usual linear increase in costs or coordination overhead.

• Accelerate feedback loops. Campaign optimization no longer has to be a slow, manual cycle of launch, analyze, and adjust. With AI agents, optimization becomes continuous. These systems monitor performance data in real time, learn from patterns, and make updates automatically—whether that's reallocating ad spend, refining audience segments, or improving copy. 

• Reduce operational overhead. AI agents streamline the behind-the-scenes work that keeps marketing teams running: data cleanup, reporting, and coordination. They can automatically compile analytics, highlight performance trends, and surface key insights to the right people at the right time. 

• Maintain consistency with built-in guardrails. Keeping campaigns on-brand and compliant becomes much easier with AI agents. Since you can train your agent on your brand guidelines, tone, and targeting rules, it can apply them consistently across every channel and deliverable. 

3 examples of AI agents for marketing

You don't have to imagine what AI agents could do for marketing—they're already changing how teams operate. Here are a few real-world examples of how marketers are using Zapier Agents to weave AI into their everyday workflows, along with pre-made agent templates to help you build your own.

1. Lead capture and enrichment  

Marketing teams love fresh leads, but they don't love chasing them down. Slate, a digital publishing platform, used Zapier Agents to turn its lead-generation process into a fully automated engine—pulling in data from multiple sources, enriching it, and routing high-quality leads straight to sales. 

The result? Over 2,000 leads in one month without manual lift. The agent handled the busywork—identifying prospects, compiling context, and teeing up personalized outreach—so the team could focus on nurturing and closing.

Learn more: How Slate generated 2,000+ leads in one month with AI-powered agents

Steal the workflow 

2. Content ideation, drafting, distribution

At JBGoodwin REALTORS, one marketing coordinator was responsible for maintaining the online presence of over 900 real estate agents—a nearly impossible task. So the team used Zapier Agents to handle the content pipeline instead: the agent researches relevant data and news stories, turns them into social media posts and blog articles, and then distributes them to the marketing team for final review. 

The result is a content marketing operation that scales effortlessly. Every agent gets consistent, high-quality content in their voice and market—without the central team becoming a bottleneck.

Learn more: How JBGoodwin REALTORS increased recruiting by 37% and scaled operations with automation

Steal the workflow 

3. Sales research and outreach 

Clean energy company egg used Zapier Agents to turn time-consuming sales research into an automated, insight-driven workflow. Before, the team spent hours gathering background data for every prospect—everything from energy usage to competitor setups. Now, a Zapier Agent handles it all: enriching each lead with relevant context, drafting personalized outreach emails, and routing them for quick review before sending.

The outcome is a sales process that runs with more precision and less friction. With the agent taking care of research and prep work, the team has more bandwidth to focus on what actually moves the needle—building relationships and closing deals.

Learn more: How a UK clean energy brand sparks sales using Zapier and AI

Steal the workflow

Automate your marketing workflows with Zapier Agents 

The possibilities of what an AI marketing agent can do go well beyond what I've shown here. Think of these examples as a jumping-off point. Once you've handed off one or two repeatable tasks to an AI agent, you'll start spotting new opportunities everywhere. 

For even more inspiration of marketing workflows you can hand off to the robots, check out our library of Agent templates. 

Related reading: 

• How to automate viral content creation with Zapier Agents

• How to build an AI-powered product manager for feature requests

• How to automate your sales outreach with Zapier Agents