EPAM Systems, Inc. announced the North American launch of Empathy Lab by EPAM, its AI-native agency designed to help brands build intelligent, human-centered growth systems in an era reshaped by AI. As AI continues to transform how consumers discover, evaluate and buy, CMOs are under growing pressure to move beyond incremental automation and rethink how creativity, data and technology work together. Empathy Lab helps marketing and digital leaders orchestrate these as one connected system - enabling brands to protect differentiation, grow demand and build lasting customer relationships and scale.
The North America launch builds on a strong inaugural year in Europe, where Empathy Lab has partnered with global brands as well as with the world's leading agency groups. These organizations are seeking a new type of partner capable of designing and building agentic platforms that support next-generation marketing capabilities - combining EPAM's deep engineering expertise with a human-centered approach to growth, experience and decision-making. Where 2025 was the year brands embedded AI, 2026 is the year where the next generation of leaders will re-architect marketing for orchestration, not efficiency.
Following its European launch in 2025, Empathy Lab has developed and deployed a suite of AI-powered accelerators designed to support every stage of the marketing lifecycle, from insights and planning to content,commerce, media and measurement. Recent engagements include: Synthetic Audiences helped product teams at Mars bring impactful new products to market faster by augmenting traditional research with AI-enabled synthetic research; Agentic Retail Media Platform development for a major UK supermarket chain, helping the retailer rewire workflows and more efficiently orchestrate brand, commercial and customer value; An integrated operating system of AI tools empowering 700+ Reckitt marketers to drive efficiency, consistency and growth across global markets. To drive its North American expansion, EPAM has appointed Ben Hall as Head of Empathy Lab for North America, where he will lead growth across the U.S. and Canada.
Hall brings more than 20 years of experience in leading enterprise growth at several global creative and technology organizations, including Tata Consulting Services and R/GA.
