Outgoing WPP CEO Mark Read recently said 'AI will upend the advertising workforce'
Mark Read says AI’s real value lies in enhancing effectiveness, not just efficiency, as WPP ramps up its AI investments amid industry shifts and layoffs.
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Artificial intelligence will inevitably reduce the number of people needed for today's advertising work - but it will also fuel a wave of new, different jobs, according to WPP CEO Mark Read, according to a report by ADWEEK.
Speaking at the inaugural SXSW London on Wednesday, Read laid out his perspective on AI's disruptive impact on the ad industry. "To do the work we do today, there will be fewer people doing it," he acknowledged. "But there will be many more and different things that people do," he added in the report.
Read emphasized that innovation drives new opportunities, likening AI's job-creating potential to how platforms like Instagram and TikTok spawned the booming creator economy. But Read also issued a clear warning to brands: don't treat AI merely as an "efficiency tool." According to Read, AI is a way to work more quickly and efficiently, but also to be more effective.
WPP itself has been betting big on AI, both to future-proof its business and drive creative innovation. Last week, the holding company launched an ad campaign spotlighting WPP Open - its proprietary AI-powered marketing platform - backed by more than $400 million in annual investment and key partnerships with AI firms, the report added.
The company's AI portfolio also includes its 2021 acquisition of tech firm Satalia and an investment in Stability AI earlier this year.
Despite wider industry anxieties about AI's impact on creative jobs, Read struck an optimistic tone. "The creative industries will be some of the best defended industries against AI [because] we will have all of these tools," he said in the media report.
He predicted AI will soon be embedded across nearly all advertising platforms. Every TV that we see won't have a reason not to use AI, Read said in the report. It will only be a matter of time until the first AI film wins an Oscar - not by writing the script, but by creating the film, Read clarified.
Read also defended another controversial company move - WPP's mandatory return-to-office policy. The four-day-in-office rule took effect in April and caused friction across some agencies and teams, ADWEEK reported.
“I think people are happier when they’re in the office. In our offices, they’re much happier,” Read said in the report.
But his rationale was serious: the pace of change in the industry requires close collaboration. “If we’re going to deal with all of this [AI-driven transformation], we better be together. We’re not going to be able to do it through video screens very easily,” he said in the report.
