Ad holding giants supercharge growth with AI; bet big on efficiency, and future-proof creativity

As global advertising faces a generational shift, the world’s biggest holding companies are making aggressive bets on artificial intelligence, not as a replacement for creativity, but as a catalyst for scalable, performance-driven growth.

From Publicis Groupe and Omnicom to IPG, WPP, Havas, and Stagwell, AI now sits at the core of a broader transformation strategy- one focused equally on delivering business outcomes, winning market share, and reasserting their value in a platform-dominated world.

Publicis: "Will never be an AI company”

French advertising giant Publicis Groupe is leading the charge, raising its 2025 organic growth forecast to “close to 5%” after outperforming expectations in Q2. The company posted 5.9% net revenue organic growth, driven by a flurry of new business wins from Coca-Cola, Nespresso, Lego, Paramount, and Spotify. First-half growth stood at 5.4%, cementing Publicis’ market share gains and boosting its industry-leading margin to 17.4%.

Read more: Publicis Groupe posts 5.9% organic net revenue growth for Q2 FY25; CEO downplays AI threat

CEO Arthur Sadoun dismissed concerns that generative AI tools from tech giants like Meta or Google will displace agencies, during the earnings call.

At this year’s Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, Meta introduced the next era of generative AI solutions for advertisers and agencies to improve ad campaign performances and drive business growth.

With the AI-powered, Advantage+ sales campaign, advertisers boost return on ad spend by an average of 22%, and backend AI innovations like Generative Ads Recommendation Model, GEM, are improving ad conversions by up to 5%,as per the company.

“When Meta says they can do everything themselves, they underestimate the intelligence of our customers,” he said. Clients, he noted, are increasingly wary of “walled gardens” and seek cross-platform transparency and accountability, something platform-native solutions can’t provide.

Publicis is making significant investments in AI-led capabilities, but Sadoun insists it will never be an “AI company.”

“We are a service business,” he said. “There’s no fatality to growing with AI and hiring people.”

Publicis, which has grown from 70,000 to 110,000 employees since 2017, is using AI to enhance, not replace, its human capital and services.

Omnicom: AI unification and a media-led surge

Omnicom is also deepening its AI commitment, with CEO John Wren overseeing the consolidation of its tech stack: Omni, OmniAI, Artbot, and Flywheel: into one platform-led organization. In Q2, the company saw 3% organic growth, led by media (+8%) and precision marketing (+5%).

Media continues to be a standout, driven by AI-powered ROI proof points that are encouraging clients to reinvest.

Read more: “AI is supercharging creativity”: Omnicom CEO John Wren bets big on agentic AI to fuel next phase of growth

“We're embedding AI agents across the campaign lifecycle- from synthetic focus groups to predictive scoring,” said CTO Paulo Juveienko. A new multi-agent reasoning engine in its health group allows real-time campaign recalibration based on stakeholder modeling and market scenarios.

Wren, echoing Sadoun’s sentiment, emphasized that AI is not a cost-cutting tool, but a productivity and scale enhancer. “It’s not about doing the same work cheaper, it’s about doing more work smarter,” he said. The company’s outcome-based compensation models reflect this shift.

IPG: Reinvention through AI and restructuring

Despite a 6.6% year-over-year decline in Q2 revenue, Interpublic Group is bullish on margins and transformation. IPG posted a record 18.1% adjusted EBITDA margin, powered by cost efficiencies and the rollout of Interact, its proprietary AI platform. Now used by over 50% of employees, Interact handles over a million prompts annually- from content ideation to media optimization.

Read more: IPG CEO says Omnicom merger will create a global marketing powerhouse fueled by AI, outcome-based solutions

The group also launched ASC (Agentic Systems for Commerce), an AI platform piloted with CPG giants, designed to manage digital shelf performance at SKU level. IPG now offers some tools as SaaS products, diversifying its revenue beyond traditional labor-based billing.

During the second-quarter earnings call, CEO Philippe Krakowski reaffirmed full-year guidance and said IPG is on track to deliver $400 million in restructuring-led savings, up from $350 million.

WPP: Reinventing marketing intelligence for privacy-first future

WPP’s Open Intelligence initiative is a next-gen data and AI platform built for a cookieless world. Powered by InfoSum and WPP’s Large Marketing Model (LMM), it processes trillions of behavioral signals to deliver privacy-safe insights at scale, without compromising personal data or needing identifiers like emails or cookies.

Read more: WPP’s AI tool claims 60% lower acquisition costs, 28% higher revenue in pilot campaigns

By working across decentralized datasets, Open Intelligence helps brands “connect the dots” in real time. With signals from 350 partners across 75 markets, the platform gives marketers a behavioral view of up to five billion individuals—redefining what it means to personalize outreach at scale.

By rethinking marketing intelligence for a privacy-first world, WPP is future-proofing its offering and signaling that the next era of advertising isn’t just data-driven, but AI-optimized and consent-respectful.

In pilot campaigns, WPP reports up to: 60% reduction in cost per acquisition; 28% boost in revenue; and 20% rise in incremental conversions.

The approach aims to blend speed, scale, precision, and performance: from real-time decisioning and custom AI models to audience discovery and behavioral targeting based on how people think and act—not just who they are demographically.

Havas: Driving growth with Converged.AI

Havas is seeing the fruits of its AI-led transformation via Converged.AI, now rolled out in India and other key markets. The holding company posted €1.35 billion in H1 2025 revenue, up 2.9%, with organic growth at 2.3%. India stood out as a bright spot in an APAC region dragged down by weak demand in China.

Read more: India among bright spots as Havas posts steady growth in first half of 2025

Chairman Yannick Bolloré said the revamped platform is “delivering meaningful impact” and that all teams are being trained to leverage AI as a force multiplier for creativity. Havas is also taking a more selective approach to acquisitions, cutting financial investments from €76 million in H1 2024 to €25 million this year, while continuing to return value to shareholders.

Stagwell: Building a lean, AI-first challenger network

At a time when traditional holdcos are undergoing restructuring, Stagwell is taking the offensive: hiring top talent from Omnicom and IBM and investing $20 million per quarter into AI integration. The firm’s AI tools span ad targeting, research dashboards, creative production, and comms automation.

Its proprietary platform, The Machine, promises up to 15% cost savings and is scheduled for a full network rollout by early 2026. CEO Mark Penn said the group is benefitting from client churn at larger rivals, and its top 25 clients delivered a 26% year-over-year revenue jump in Q2.

Read more: As rivals cut thousands, Stagwell hires top talent and doubles down on AI, says CEO Mark Penn

Across holding companies, a clear pattern is emerging: AI is no longer a bolt-on, it’s becoming the operating system of modern advertising. Whether it’s predictive engines, synthetic insights, or intelligent automation, agencies are weaving AI into everything from media and creative to commerce and customer experience.

Yet even as they embrace technology, leaders like Sadoun and Wren argue that human judgment, creative excellence, and trust will remain the defining assets of agency businesses. In a world where clients are wary of handing over data to monolithic tech platforms, ad agencies are positioning themselves as indispensable strategic partners—armed with AI, but led by insight.

As Publicis’ Sadoun put it: “We are a service business. We grow with AI, not despite it.”