Zoho has updated its Campaigns marketing platform with support for AI agent workflows, native WhatsApp campaigns and a rebuilt email editor. The changes also keep paid plans starting at $4 a month.
The update adds support for the Model Context Protocol, or MCP, an open standard that allows compatible AI agents to work across supported software actions within the permissions set by a business. Marketers can use those agents to build, schedule and analyse campaigns while retaining review and approval controls, according to Zoho.
The revised platform also brings email, SMS and WhatsApp activity into a single workflow. Zoho has also redesigned the Campaigns workspace and rebuilt the template editor to reduce the number of steps needed to create and launch campaigns.
For marketing teams, the practical change is a broader shift towards multichannel work from one interface. Users can now run bulk WhatsApp campaigns with approved message templates, add WhatsApp steps inside automated workflows, and manage frequency capping across email, SMS and WhatsApp so contacts are not messaged too often within the same time window, Zoho said.
The company is also embedding AI tools more deeply into campaign operations rather than limiting them to copy generation. Under the new setup, a marketer could ask a compatible AI agent to prepare a seasonal campaign for an existing customer segment, review recent campaigns to identify a strong performer and adapt it for a new promotion, or build a re-engagement campaign for contacts inactive over a defined period.
Those actions depend on the connected AI tool, available integrations and the permissions configured by the organisation. That means businesses can decide which tasks an agent can complete and which still require a person to approve the next step.
Zoho said the update also improves the speed of core campaign tasks. In internal testing, sending 100,000 emails was up to four times faster than before, while importing 100,000 contacts was up to five times faster.
Editor rebuild
A significant part of the overhaul centres on the template editor. Zoho says it has rebuilt the editor from scratch with support for themes, reusable content blocks, dedicated mobile editing, dynamic content for different audience segments and more streamlined HTML output.
The company is also adding a tool called Zia Content Analyser to the editor. It checks spelling, grammar and style in real time and can suggest changes to tone, clarity and phrasing, as well as draft subject lines, preheaders and body copy across email, SMS and WhatsApp campaigns.
Another feature, called Campaign Context, lets users apply a shared brief across a set of campaigns. The brief can include brand voice, offer details and audience information to help maintain consistency across messages, according to Zoho.
Audience targeting has also been updated. Advanced segmentation now supports layered criteria, engagement metrics and more complex condition groups, with faster processing for larger databases, the company said.
Data links
On the data side, Zoho has strengthened connections between Campaigns and its wider software suite. Live sync with Zoho CRM is intended to keep contact data and audience segments current, while users can import contacts from a Zoho CRM custom view directly into a mailing list without rebuilding filters.
Users can also create campaigns using CRM data without switching between products for each step, according to the company. Expanded webhooks are designed to send campaign data to external applications for connected workflows.
The reporting layer has also been revised. Users now have access to separate dashboards for email, SMS and WhatsApp alongside a unified contact dashboard, with eCommerce reporting for ROI, revenue, orders and cart performance, plus campaign data sync into Zoho Analytics, Zoho said.
Market pressure
The changes reflect growing competition in marketing software, where vendors are trying to combine channel management, customer data and AI-assisted automation in a single environment. For users, one of the more immediate questions is how much operational control to hand to AI tools, particularly where campaign approvals, segmentation choices and message timing affect customer outreach.
Zoho framed the new MCP support around that balance between automation and oversight. "Marketing tools should help marketers get campaigns out the door, not make them navigate unnecessary complexity," said Ananda Raman Krishnan, Senior Vice President, Marketing Apps at Zoho.
"We rebuilt Zoho Campaigns to make campaign creation faster and simpler, with improved performance and by unifying email, SMS and WhatsApp into one experience. With Campaigns' AI agent workflows, marketers can delegate multi-step tasks while retaining control over their campaigns and decisions, using AI as a marketer's assistant, not a replacement," said Krishnan.
Zoho said SMS and WhatsApp functions are included at no additional platform charge, although customers still need to buy message credits. The service also continues to offer a free plan for up to 500 contacts and 2,000 emails a month.