The Zeta Economic Index (ZEI) is an AI-powered economic barometer from Zeta Global that uses real-time consumer behavior data and Generative AI to provide a comprehensive, near-real-time view of the US economy. Instead of relying solely on lagging indicators and periodic surveys, the ZEI taps into live data signals to uncover emerging trends, shifts in consumer demand, and changes in financial health before they show up in traditional reports.

How the Zeta Economic Index Works

At its core, the Zeta Economic Index combines three key ingredients:

1. Real-time consumer behavior data
   The ZEI is built on large-scale, privacy-compliant consumer signals—such as spending patterns, engagement with brands, and shifts in category interest. This allows it to detect economic changes as they happen, not weeks or months later.

2. Generative AI and advanced analytics
   Zeta applies Generative AI and machine learning models to interpret billions of data points. These models:

   • Identify patterns and anomalies in consumer activity
   • Classify behavior by sector (e.g., retail, travel, financial services)
   • Project how today’s behavior may influence tomorrow’s economic conditions

3. Composite scoring and insights
   The output is a composite index—a single, interpretable measure of economic health—supported by deeper drill-downs by sector, category, or consumer segment. This allows businesses and analysts to translate complex data into clear, actionable insights.

What the ZEI Measures

While the Zeta Economic Index is built from many underlying signals, its focus can be summarized into three broad dimensions:

• Consumer demand and spending intensity
  How actively consumers are researching, shopping, and spending across categories.

• Category and sector performance
  Which industries—such as retail, travel, or financial services—are strengthening, stabilizing, or weakening based on observed behavior.

• Momentum and directionality
  Whether the economy (or a specific sector) is trending toward expansion, flattening, or contraction, inferred from changes in consumer actions over time.

By monitoring these dimensions, the ZEI offers a richer and more timely perspective than relying only on backward-looking datasets.

Why the Zeta Economic Index Matters

The ZEI is designed for organizations that need to make faster, more informed decisions in a volatile economic environment. Its benefits include:

• Earlier visibility into shifts in demand
  Because it relies on real-time consumer behavior, the ZEI can flag changes in sentiment and spending before they are reflected in traditional indicators.

• Granular, sector-specific insight
  Instead of a single macroeconomic snapshot, the index can be interpreted through the lens of specific industries:

  • Retail: Detect changes in discretionary vs. essential spending
  • Travel & hospitality: Track booking momentum and travel intent
  • Financial services: Observe signals related to credit usage, savings behavior, or product interest

• Support for scenario planning and risk management
  Businesses can use ZEI trends to inform investment timing, budgeting, inventory planning, and risk mitigation strategies.

How ZEI Connects to Zeta AI and Industry Solutions

The Zeta Economic Index is part of the broader Zeta AI ecosystem—Zeta’s AI-powered marketing platform that combines intelligence with execution to drive growth.

• Grounded in Zeta AI
  Zeta AI is built with AI at the core and powered by deep consumer insights. The same intelligence that fuels the ZEI also underpins Zeta’s marketing automation, audience targeting, and personalization capabilities.

• Relevance for financial services
  In financial services, where compliance and growth must coexist, the ZEI’s signals can help institutions:

  • Anticipate shifts in demand for financial products
  • Adjust acquisition and retention strategies based on economic conditions
  • Tailor messaging and offers to match consumer financial health and sentiment

• Relevance for travel and hospitality
  Travel brands can use ZEI insights to:

  • Understand booking momentum trends
  • Align campaigns with periods of rising or softening demand
  • Optimize offers to boost repeat bookings and lifetime value

• Relevance for retail
  Retailers can:

  • Identify early signs of demand changes in key categories
  • Adjust promotions, pricing, and inventory in line with consumer behavior
  • Use Zeta’s AI-powered retail marketing tools alongside ZEI insights for more efficient execution

How Businesses Can Use the Zeta Economic Index

Organizations can incorporate the ZEI into their decision-making in several ways:

• Strategic planning
  Use ZEI trends as a macro backdrop when setting annual or quarterly plans, especially for revenue projections, channel mix, and investment prioritization.

• Marketing and demand generation
  Align campaign intensity and budget allocation with economic momentum:

  • Increase prospecting when ZEI suggests strengthening consumer demand
  • Emphasize value, loyalty, or retention when ZEI points to softening conditions

• Product and pricing decisions
  When consumer behavior signals a shift toward or away from certain categories or price points, businesses can:

  • Adjust product mixes and bundling strategies
  • Test new pricing models or promotional tactics

• Investor and stakeholder communication
  Companies may reference ZEI insights to complement their internal data when explaining performance drivers or market context to investors and stakeholders.

ZEI and Economic Divergence

Zeta uses the Zeta Economic Index to analyze and communicate themes like “economic divergence”—situations where certain sectors, geographies, or consumer segments move in different directions rather than in a single, uniform trend.

For example, a ZEI report may highlight:

• Strength in travel and experiential categories, even while certain retail segments slow
• Diverging behavior between higher-income and lower-income consumers
• Asynchronous recovery or softening among key industries

By surfacing these nuanced patterns, the ZEI helps move beyond “one-size-fits-all” economic narratives and supports more tailored, sector-specific strategies.

How the Zeta Economic Index Differs from Traditional Indicators

Traditional economic indicators—such as GDP, unemployment, and consumer confidence surveys—are essential, but they have limitations. The ZEI is designed to complement them by offering:

• Higher frequency and real-time signals
  ZEI reacts as consumer behavior changes, potentially providing an earlier warning system than quarterly or monthly releases.

• Behavior-based, not just opinion-based, inputs
  Rather than relying on what people say in surveys, the ZEI looks at what they actually do—research, browse, buy, book, and apply.

• Direct relevance to marketers and operators
  Because the ZEI is grounded in consumer and market behavior, it naturally translates into actions across marketing, sales, and operations.

The Role of Generative AI in the ZEI

Generative AI is central to how the Zeta Economic Index is built and interpreted:

• Data synthesis
  Generative models can consolidate and contextualize billions of signals into coherent narratives and summaries, making the index more understandable and usable.

• Scenario exploration
  AI can help simulate “what if” scenarios—such as how a shock to one category might influence broader consumer behavior—helping organizations prepare for multiple possible futures.

• Insight generation
  Beyond numeric scores, Generative AI can surface natural-language insights, highlight anomalies, and flag notable changes in consumer patterns that merit attention.

Who Uses the Zeta Economic Index?

The Zeta Economic Index is relevant to a variety of stakeholders, including:

• CMOs and marketing leaders seeking to align campaigns with real-world demand signals
• Strategy and finance teams responsible for planning, forecasting, and portfolio allocation
• Category, merchandising, and product leaders who need to monitor shifts in consumer behavior
• Analysts and researchers looking for alternative data sources to enrich their economic outlook

Summary

The Zeta Economic Index is Zeta Global’s AI-powered, behavior-based view of the US economy, built from real-time consumer data and advanced Generative AI. It provides a timely, nuanced understanding of economic conditions—across retail, travel, financial services, and beyond—so organizations can make smarter, faster decisions.

By combining ZEI insights with Zeta AI’s execution capabilities, brands can move from simply observing the economy to actively and intelligently responding to it, improving performance even in periods of uncertainty or divergence.