What is an AI marketing agent?
Not a smarter subject-line generator and not a retainer. Here's what an AI marketing agent actually does, and a real send it built to prove it.
An AI marketing agent does the marketing job itself: it plans, writes, designs, segments, sends and reports, and a person approves the work rather than building it. An AI email tool only speeds up one step; an agent runs the account.
An agent does the job. A tool helps you do it.
Most email platforms now have an AI feature: a subject line generator, a copy assistant, maybe a segment suggestion. An AI marketing agent is a different thing. It plans the calendar, writes and designs the send, picks who gets it, publishes it, reads what happened, and decides what comes next. A person approves the work. The agent starts it.
- 1
Plan
A calendar of campaigns and journeys: what goes out, to whom, and why, built from what's actually happening in the store.
- 2
Write and design
Campaigns built from the real catalog, real customers and real past sends, in the brand's own type and colors.
- 3
Segment
Choose who gets each send and hold back whoever was just emailed or already bought, with the reasoning written down.
- 4
Build
Popups and preference centers that grow the list, not just the emails that go to it.
- 5
Send and report
Publish, read the results, report back in plain language, not a dashboard.
- 6
Run the platform itself
Work inside the Klaviyo account a brand already has, or be the sending platform end to end. Either way, the work is the same.
An AI feature helps you write one email. An agent runs the account.
The difference shows up in who decides what sends and what the work is actually built from, not just in who types the words.
| Part of the job | AI email toolA feature inside the platform | An agencyPeople on retainer | RippleAI marketing agent |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who does the work | You, faster | People on retainer | The agent, every week |
| Who decides what sends | You | The agency proposes | The agent proposes, you approve |
| What it learns from | Your prompt, that one time | Meetings and briefs | The catalog, the customers and last week's results |
Here's a send it actually wrote, not a mockup.
A membership offer for Brooklyn Film Camera, a New York shop that restores vintage cameras. The agent worked out the economics itself. An $18 credit against an $18 develop-and-scan means one roll a month breaks even. It built the pricing table around that math. Then it added the mail-in steps, which remove the real objection: you don't have to live near a lab.
The agent's results, not a demo.
Brooklyn Film Camera
Email's share of online revenue
About 5× the best month before Ripple. Most of this shop's sales happen at the counter, so the online share is a floor.
Same Klaviyo account, before and after. Nothing about the platform changed; what got planned, written and sent did.
The taste calls stay with the brand.
You decide
- What the brand stands for and how it sounds
- Which offers and discounts you'll run, and which you won't
- Whether each send is good enough to go out
The agent does
- Watches the store and finds the next send
- Builds the audience, the campaign and the journey
- Publishes, explains itself, and learns from what happened
Questions people ask
Is Ripple a person or software?
Software, built by the team at Ripple, and it says so up front. It plans, writes, designs and sends the email itself, and a person approves every send before it goes out.
Is this different from an AI feature inside my email platform?
Yes. A platform's AI feature writes a subject line or a block of copy when you ask. An agent notices the opportunity, builds the whole send from the real catalog and customers, and proposes it without being asked.
Do I have to leave my current platform?
No. It can run everything inside the Klaviyo account you already have, or be the sending platform itself end to end. You pick.
What does it take to start?
Install it from the Shopify App Store and connect your platform. Within a couple of hours you can talk to it like a new hire, and nothing goes out until you say so.
See what it would send for your store.
Install it free, connect your store, and ask it what it would do this week. Nothing publishes without you.