Gap Inc. is overhauling its shared marketing infrastructure with AI tools from Zeta Global, Google Cloud, and Publicis Sapient, a move the retailer announced at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. The initiative aims to replace a linear, campaign-based model with an always-on system that personalizes customer interactions across email, paid media, and e-commerce channels for its portfolio of brands - Gap, Banana Republic, Old Navy, and Athleta.
The company will use Zeta Global's AI Marketing Cloud to unify customer data like purchases and clicks, then apply AI to generate insights and activate personalized marketing. A key component is Athena by Zeta, an AI agent that provides conversational answers to marketing queries and handles workflows including audience creation, campaign setup, creative generation, simulation, and quality assurance.
Building an AI-ready data foundation
On the cloud infrastructure side, Gap Inc. is working with Google Cloud and its Agent Studio, Agent Engine, and Gemini tools to create a unified data layer that merges customer and product intelligence. The company said this foundation will enable faster personalization and continuous learning across marketing content and e-commerce. Google's image and video models, including Nano Banana and Veo, will be used to produce content at scale.
Publicis Sapient has also been engaged to help design a consumer-centric operating model that makes marketing more connected and responsive to customer behavior. The combined effort reflects what Gap Inc. described as a shift toward an "AI-enabled marketing flywheel" where content, activation, commerce, and data operate in a continuous loop.
Freeing teams for creative work
"Gap Inc. has always been a company that shapes culture, and now we have an opportunity to reshape how we show up for customers in a faster, smarter and more personal way," said Damon Berger, senior vice president of marketing shared services. "This transformation is about bringing together the creativity of our teams with the power of AI - removing silos, unlocking better data, and building a marketing model that learns, adapts and improves with every customer interaction. We are using AI to give our teams more time for strategy, storytelling and the work that creates lasting brand love."
Chief technology officer Sven Gerjets added that the strategy is "human-centered and digitally enabled," designed to help the company understand customer intent and create more meaningful experiences across its brands.
Why this matters for marketing professionals
Gap Inc.'s approach shows how enterprise marketing organizations are moving beyond simple automation toward agentic AI that handles multi-step workflows - audience building, creative generation, and campaign simulation - within a single system. For marketing leaders evaluating similar shifts, the move from linear campaigns to an always-on model requires a data foundation that connects customer behavior with product intelligence in real time. The AI Learning Path for CMOs covers strategy, analytics, and the operational changes needed to support this kind of transformation. Teams looking to build skills across personalization and campaign optimization can find targeted resources in AI for Marketing training modules.
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