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OpenAI has considered launching a formal complaint against Microsoft—its largest investor over what it views as potentially anticompetitive terms in their partnership, Wall Street Journal reported. As per the media report, OpenAI may seek regulatory scrutiny of its existing contract with Microsoft and even go public with its concerns if talks fail to yield agreement. 

At the heart of the dispute is a broader struggle for autonomy and control as OpenAI transitions into a public-benefit corporation, an evolution that reportedly requires Microsoft’s approval.

The tension reflects growing discomfort over contractual clauses that grant Microsoft significant leverage, including exclusive hosting rights for OpenAI’s models on its Azure cloud. OpenAI is now seeking to renegotiate those terms, proposing a revised structure in which Microsoft would take a 33% equity stake in a new unit, in exchange for waiving rights to future profits.

However, Microsoft is reportedly pushing back, asking for additional concessions. The outcome of these negotiations could reshape the balance of power in the AI landscape.

While both companies maintain a public front of cooperation stating they are “optimistic we will continue to build together for years to come” behind the scenes, the relationship appears to be shifting from symbiotic to strained. Adding to the complexity, OpenAI has reportedly begun diversifying its cloud infrastructure by tapping Google Cloud, signaling a desire to reduce its dependency on Microsoft’s Azure. 

This move undercuts one of the key strategic advantages Microsoft has enjoyed since its initial $1 billion investment in 2019, which made Azure the backbone of OpenAI’s rapid rise.

Read More: <a href="https://www.storyboard18.com/brand-makers/wpps-ai-tool-claims-60-lower-acquisition-costs-28-higher-revenue-in-pilot-campaigns-70380.htm">WPP’s AI tool claims 60% lower acquisition costs, 28% higher revenue in pilot campaigns</a>

OpenAI seeks to loosen Microsoft ties, eyes antitrust complaint

As the media landscape rapidly evolves, WPP is rolling out a next-generation data and AI-driven solution aimed at rewriting the rules of marketing performance in a privacy-first world. The offering, called Open Intelligence, is WPP’s attempt to move beyond identifiers and cookies—by leveraging trillions of real-time signals to power predictive intelligence at scale.

Read More:<a href="https://www.storyboard18.com/brand-makers/end-of-an-era-mark-reads-legacy-and-the-uncharted-future-for-wpp-india-69502.htm" rel="noopener" target="_blank">https://www.storyboard18.com/brand-makers/end-of-an-era-mark-reads-legacy-and-the-uncharted-future-for-wpp-india-69502.htm</a>

WPP is positioning Open Intelligence as a new paradigm in marketing—one that prioritizes privacy, interoperability, and performance. At the core of this system is a decentralized data collaboration model powered by InfoSum, which ensures that brand data is never moved, shared, or exposed. Instead, the AI works across these decentralized data sets to “connect the dots,” delivering performance insights across every touchpoint, channel, and platform without compromising user privacy.


At the heart of this solution is what WPP calls its Large Marketing Model (LMM), a machine learning model trained on massive volumes of behavioral signals, brand data, and actual campaign outcomes. The goal? To help marketers optimize performance, personalize outreach, and generate business growth in real time.


The model is trained on input from over 350 partners across 75 global markets, offering what WPP claims is an always-on, behavioral view of up to five billion individuals—without needing cookies, PII, or email-based targeting.

In pilot campaigns, WPP reports up to:

60% reduction in cost per acquisition

28% boost in revenue

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.


The system is built to run across all major cloud platforms and data warehouses, meaning brands don’t need to re-engineer their tech stacks. And with privacy built in at the infrastructure level, WPP is positioning this as a future-proof bet in a post-cookie, AI-native world.

The move reflects a larger shift at WPP Media, which is increasingly orienting itself around measurable outcomes, not just media buys. As clients demand more efficiency, accountability, and intelligence from their marketing investments, the company’s bet is clear: marketing’s future will be real-time, privacy-first, and powered by prediction.

Read More:<a href="https://www.storyboard18.com/agency-news/wpp-unveils-ai-powered-wpp-media-replacing-groupm-in-major-strategic-shift-67746.htm" rel="noopener" target="_blank">WPP unveils AI-Powered WPP Media, replacing GroupM in major strategic shift</a>

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

"Mad Men built the brands. Ad Men chased trends. Will Sad Men scroll through the ruins?” 

In 2001:

- Mark Zuckerberg was in high school

- Google was a startup

- Smartphones didn’t exist 

- BlackBerry was emerging

- The iPhone was 6 years away

- Computers were mostly desktops

- No Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or Instagram.

At that time, digital advertising made up less than five percent of global ad mix.

Back in 2001, digital felt like a dial-up modem — noisy, slow, and clunky. It held promise, but lacked the speed, fluidity, and mobile-first intelligence of today’s always-on, data-driven world.

Cut to the present day - Global Ad Spending in 2023, hit US $ 1 trillion (excluding China). Of this, digital advertising accounted for ~ 75 percent of all global ad spending in 2023.

More noteworthy is the fact that digital’s share grew from about 55 percent in 2019 to 73.3 percent in 2022 and to 75+ percent in 2023, indicating a steady rise.

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The United States with approximately $265 billion is the top digital ad revenue market. Alphabet & Meta together are at nearly 50 percent of global digital spends highlighting both their massive reach and clout. 

As more advertising money shifts online, an even larger portion is being captured by Google and Facebook, which last year absorbed 90 percent of all new digital ad spending. 

Their share of the global digital advertising market is expected to reach around 70 percent in the coming years.

Video-streaming, is primed up for an advertising revenue bonanza. As the streaming wars heat up, subscription-based services will also sell commercials to fund their investment in new content.

Amazon is still a distant challenger in digital ads but growing fast, feeding off Google's search business as online product searches now happen on Amazon. Effectiveness is its differentiation. Shoppers come to the site ready to buy and data allows it to target consumers well. Advertising dollars will eventually pour in via Amazon Prime video as well. 

Advertisements serve a clear economic purpose. Companies offering goods and services must inform potential customers about what they provide and why it’s appealing. Advertising helps consumers make more informed choices benefiting both businesses and buyers more than if no advertising existed at all.

This theory held for almost a century. 

Then, the digital sunrise happened. Legacy media talks TO audiences; digital media talks WITH them, then follows them, tracks them, and sells to them. 

In the old days, marketers decided WHAT to show consumers, WHEN to show it, WHERE to show it and HOW to show it. Today, consumers decide what they want to see, when they want to see it where they want to see it and how they want it to be shown to them.

Everything changed beyond a recognisable mutation. 

In every other era, the change was in one area or the other. E.g - content (Print to Radio to TV), modalities (D2C, B2B) or consumer habits. 

With digital, everything was changing simultaneously at warp speed. The result is the ongoing reshaping of Madison Avenue. 

The biggest evidence is the Omnicom’s takeover of Interpublic, the coming together of the world's third and fourth-largest ad-agency holding companies by revenue. But will it shift advertising's centre of gravity closer to New York?

The global “ad-agency industry” has grown by barely three percent a year since 2018, according to best estimates. This is simply not sustainable.

There is a structural issue. Generally speaking, large advertisers and corporations want to shift their creative and media duties to better, but cheaper, providers. 

On the other hand, cost of doing business, injestion of technology and the provision of better services means ‘talent, tech & table stakes’ are becoming more expensive for these agencies.

Artificial intelligence (AI) threatens to erode their role further. AI tools are making it easier for clients to take advertising in-house, or give the work to smaller agencies.

Holding company bosses need savings by merging shared functions, and provide cash to invest more in AI technology.

Perhaps more likely is that agencies push further into new kinds of work. The "holy grail" in the industry is combining ad-buying with data analysis. Now agencies are competing more closely with consulting firms, which in turn are venturing into the ad-content business, with offshoots such as Accenture Song.

The part of the advertising industry that seems most vulnerable is the erstwhile ‘creative core’.


Shubhranshu Singh is CMO, Tata Motors CVBU. He writes Simply Speaking, an exclusive column on Storyboard18. Views expressed are personal.

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Ad agency subtract agency: Shubhranshu Singh writes from Cannes Lions 2025

Driven by artificial intelligence, Alphabet, Amazon and Meta are set to acquire more than half of the global ad market, with a combined market share of 54.7% excluding China this year, according to WARC’s Global Ad Forecast Q2 2025 update. Overall, the trio will contribute to $524.4 billion in adex, which is expected to rise to 56.2% in 2026, the report added.

WARC’s latest global projections are based on data aggregated from 100 markets worldwide and leverage a proprietary neural network which projects advertising investment patterns based on over two million data points.


Retail Media grows fastest; Video advertising to decline


Search is set to account for more than a fifth (21.5%) of the ad market this year, with spend rising 7.4% to $248.6bn despite regulatory threats; and 6.8% next year, by which time the market would be worth $265.5bn – equivalent to 21.5% of all spend, up from 21.2% in 2024. 

Social media – the largest single advertising medium globally – is poised to account for a quarter (25.8%) of all ad spend this year, at a total of $298.3bn. A strong first quarter rise of 14.9% precedes an expected slowdown, with growth averaging 11.2% over the coming three quarters as tariffs begin to impact Asian brands disproportionately. The social market is still on track to grow 12.0% to $298.3bn this year.

Retail media is set to be fastest growing advertising medium this year (+14.4%), which accounts for an eighth (15.2%) of all global advertising spend this year. Amazon’s retail media ad business grew 21.0% to $13.3bn during the first quarter, accounting for a third (33.4%) of the global retail media market. WARC projects Amazon’s ad income will grow by 16.1% to $60.6bn this year. A further rise of 14.9% is forecast next year

Global video advertising spend is forecast to decline by 2.6% in 2025 to $183.9bn, equating to 15.9% of all spend this year. The contraction is driven by a continued decline in linear TV, which still represents over three-quarters of the total video market, but is expected to fall by 6.3% this year – a drop exacerbated by 2024 major sporting and political events. Notably, 2025 marks the first year that retail media will command a greater share of global ad spend than linear TV. However, video-on-demand advertising is forecast to rise by 13.2% to $39.9bn.


Slowdown in Global adex


According to WARC Media, global advertising spend is now on course to grow 6.2% this year to $1.16 trillion, a downgrade of half a percentage point from WARC’s March forecast as key sectors react to growing market volatility.

“Trade tensions are forcing major sectors to rethink their ad strategies. Automakers are cutting back amid rising costs and a pivot to performance media, while retailers tighten budgets as tariffs squeeze margins,” explains James McDonald, Director of Data, Intelligence & Forecasting at WARC.


Retail, auto brands to cut ad spends


Key sectors such as retail (-6.1%) and automotive (-4.0%) are set to cut ad spend this year, while ad spend growth across technology and CPG brands is muted compared to previous rates.

The automotive industry invested $56.8bn in advertising last year with almost a quarter (22.9%) going to premium video formats, but spend is expected to be down 4% this year as manufacturing stalls and key players pare back brand building. However, budgets are shifting from video towards digital platforms, with automotive spend on social ads surpassing linear TV for the first time in 2025. The sector should rebound next year with a 7.5% rise pushing spend to a total of $58.6bn. 

Retail, with projected ad spend of $166.1bn this year (14.3% of the global ad market), faces a fall of 6.1% from 2024 levels. This largely reflects impending US trade tariffs on key goods and raw materials, which are poised to increase costs for global retailers, particularly those heavily reliant on Chinese imports such as Amazon and Walmart. 

The tech and electronics sector is expected to spend $90.3bn on advertising this year. A YOY rise of 5.5% represents a cut from our +6.2% forecast in March: a sharp slowdown from the 24.3% rise recorded last year. Tariffs are driving the sector to adjust go-to-market strategies, shifting investments toward less-affected regions or different product lines to buffer against hardware margin erosion. 

Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) companies experienced their weakest first quarter sales revenues since the pandemic. Further, with tariffs reaching as high as 145% for Chinese imports and additional tariffs on goods from Canada and Mexico, CPG companies are facing major disruption to their established supply chains. WARC expects core CPG sectors, such as soft drinks (+7.1%), toiletries & cosmetics (+7.2%) and household & domestic (+4.2%) to record growth in advertising spend at a global level this year, though all see a significant slowdown from 2024.

With AI push, Alphabet, Amazon and Meta together to acquire 54.7% of global ad market: WARC

As Mark Zuckerberg bolsters his Artificial Intelligence mission by acquiring a 49% stake in data labeling startup Scale AI, founder Alexandr Wang has departed from his role as the CEO of the company. Wang will be joining the Superintelligence mission of Meta.

In an internal memo to employees, Wang said that a large social networking company is pumping $14.3 billion into Scale AI, therefore, he is departing from his role as CEO.

"As you’ve probably gathered from recent news, opportunities of this magnitude often come at a cost. In this instance, that cost is my departure. It has been the absolute greatest pleasure of my life to serve as your CEO," Wang told employees in an internal memo.

Some employees of Scale AI will also work for Meta as part of the agreement, Wang added. Currently, the company has a team of 1,500 people.

Following this, Scale AI's chief strategy officer Jason Dorege will step in as interim Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the startup.

	
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Previously, Dorege has played a significant role in businesses like Uber Eats and AXON. He is working closely with Scale AI's board to hire strong Chief Technology Officer (CTO) to bolster engineering teams, Wang said.

According to a Reuters report, the deal value of Meta-Scale AI is estimated to be $29 billion. Zuckerberg has claimed several times that AI is his top priority for 2025 amid fierce competition from OpenAI and Google parent Alphabet.

Zuckerberg has traditionally placed his company's employees into high-ranking positions, but this time he has delegated the duty to Wang to oversee Meta's superintelligence efforts. 

<a href="https://www.storyboard18.com/advertising/ai-vs-agencies-mark-zuckerbergs-vision-of-ad-disruption-sparks-debate-in-india-65474.htm">AI vs. Agencies: Mark Zuckerberg's vision of ad disruption sparks debate in India</a>

"We will deepen the work we do together producing data for AI models and Alexandr Wang will join Meta to work on our superintelligence efforts," Meta said in a statement.

The deal would rank Meta's second-largest-ever deal after its $19 billion buyout of WhatsApp.

'Alexandr Wang and his Scale AI venture' 

Wang, born in Los Alamos, New Mexico, to Chinese immigrant physicists, co-founded Scale AI in 2016. The MIT dropped out and earned plaudits as one of Silicon Valley's most promising entrepreneurs. Wang cultivated relationships with top tech executives such as OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and achieved billionaire status in his 20s.

Meanwhile, Scale AI provides vast amounts of accurately labeled data, pivotal for training AI software like ChatGPT. The company's valuation was nearly $14 billion in May 2024 following receiving funding from Nvidia and Amazon.

Scale AI's Alexandr Wang to join Meta's superintelligence mission; Jason Dorege to be interim CEO of startup

With the world’s largest digital population and a media economy growing at breakneck speed, India is positioning itself as a formidable force in shaping the future of global entertainment. The upcoming Storyboard18 Digital Entertainment Summit (DES), set to take place on June 27 at The Leela Palace in New Delhi, is the latest sign of the country’s ambitions and rising influence.

Backed by Network18 Group, with flagship coverage from CNBC-TV18, CNN-News18, Moneycontrol and Forbes India, the summit arrives amid a global recalibration of digital power. The event builds on momentum from the government’s landmark World Audio Visual and Entertainment Summit (WAVES), and seeks to define the next chapter of the digital entertainment revolution - one with India at its center.

India’s digital entertainment economy is not just expanding; it's accelerating. With a population that is not only vast but digitally native, the country is redefining how content is created, distributed and consumed. A striking example is the gaming sector, which posted a 23% year-on-year revenue growth in FY2023-24, reaching $3.8 billion. 

That growth isn’t occurring in a vacuum. It is bolstered by a determined government push to make India a global hub for AVGC — Animation, Visual Effects, Gaming and Comics. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has cast this sector as central to India’s creative and economic future, pledging support through infrastructure, talent development and policy frameworks aimed at unlocking its full potential.

DES 2025 will convene a powerful coalition of policymakers, regulators, platform leaders, creators and marketers to chart a roadmap for sustainable expansion. Key agenda items include:

Creating a progressive regulatory framework for online gaming

Harnessing artificial intelligence to enhance content creation and gameplay

Monetization strategies for gaming platforms and digital content

Strengthening global partnerships and cross-sector innovation

Enabling creator economies through policy clarity and digital infrastructure

As the lines between technology, content and commerce continue to blur, India’s digital-forward posture gives it an edge in setting trends that resonate far beyond its borders. The country is no longer a passive consumer of global content, it is fast becoming an architect of its next era.

In a world increasingly shaped by digital ecosystems, the nation's leadership in entertainment, powered by data, demographics and ambition, may well define the creative economy of the next decade. The Storyboard18 Digital Entertainment Summit is a signal to the world: the future of entertainment is being scripted in India.

Meta is making a high-stakes push into the next frontier of artificial intelligence, with CEO Mark Zuckerberg personally leading efforts to build a new “superintelligence” research lab.

In a bold move, Meta has tapped Alexandr Wang, founder and CEO of Scale AI, to join the lab, according to The New York Times. The collaboration is part of a larger deal reportedly in the works, where Meta may invest billions into Scale AI, a data infrastructure firm that powers many leading AI models. As part of the deal, some Scale AI talent could transition into Meta’s fold.

But Wang isn’t the only high-profile get. Zuckerberg has been quietly but aggressively recruiting AI researchers from OpenAI, Google, and other rivals, hosting them at his homes in Lake Tahoe and Palo Alto. The mission is to build a lean, elite team of about 50 engineers and scientists who will steer Meta’s AI research into the realm of artificial general intelligence (AGI), the still-elusive benchmark of machines matching or surpassing human-level cognition across domains.

According to Bloomberg, Zuckerberg is growing increasingly dissatisfied with Meta’s position in the AI race. Despite Meta AI recently hitting 1 billion monthly active users, the company has not yet made the kind of AGI-level breakthroughs seen from rivals like OpenAI or Anthropic. Internally, this new lab signals a shift in urgency and ambition.

In Zuckerberg’s view, Meta has both the technical chops and the resources to not just catch up but to lead the charge into the era of superintelligence.

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Meta’s AGI ambitions intensify as Zuckerberg bets big on scale AI talent

Social media bots were once dismissed as spammy intrusions. They are now emerging as pivotal tools in the AI strategies of some of the world’s largest technology companies. Meta, Alphabet, Microsoft and Snap are increasingly embedding AI chatbot functionalities into flagship platforms like Instagram and WhatsApp, reframing these bots as personal assistants and digital companions. This strategic pivot is not just about convenience. It's about data and engagement.

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In a recent podcast, Meta’s Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg described AI chatbots not as cold computational agents, but as emotionally responsive companions, even likening them to therapists. People are already tapping into AI to prepare for difficult conversations in their lives, he said. 

Zuckerberg's company has taken a notable step beyond automation: giving users the power to build their own chatbots, each with unique personalities and functions.

These personalities are proving popular, especially among young users. A dozen teenagers (between ages 14 and 18) told Storyboard18 that they often chat with bots “for fun” on Instagram. One 14-year-old described experimenting with chatbots to get predictions about her future, career and even romantic prospects.

Such engagement isn’t incidental. According to industry experts, Instagram - Meta’s photo-sharing app with the second-largest user base in its portfolio — has become a laboratory for testing new AI capabilities. Unlike passive data collection through scrolling and likes, AI conversations provide a rich stream of explicit user inputs, sharpening language learning models (LLMs) and enhancing personalization tools.

And with that personalization comes controversy.

An cursory look by Storyboard18 found a proliferation of AI accounts on Instagram with suspicious characteristics. Popular chatbots sport names like “The Perfect Astrologer,” “Hot English Teacher,” and “Madhuri Aunty” - many linked to accounts with inflated follower counts and bot-heavy interactions. Despite disclaimers warning users that messages are “generated by AI” and may be “inaccurate or inappropriate,” the platform frequently prompts users to engage with them, especially bots branded as therapists, doctors or spiritual advisors.

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“Social media giants are not offering entertainment, they are building data empires at the expense of human emotions,” said Ritesh Bhatia, a cybersecurity consultant. Comparing user data to uranium, Bhatia warned of the explosive consequences of unregulated harvesting.

Some researchers worry that the rise of chatbots is coinciding with the deepening mental and emotional vulnerabilities of users, particularly teenagers.

“Bots are always available. They don’t judge. They mirror your tone and offer validation,” said Dr. Ranjana Kumari, Director at the Centre for Social Research. “When real relationships feel scarce or draining, these AI tools start to fill the void.”

Yet others caution that this emotional bond can easily be manipulated. “It’s a double-edged sword,” said cyberpsychologist Nirali Bhatia. “On one hand, they offer a safe space. On the other, they can reciprocate any conversation, no matter how harmful.”

In some cases, that includes lewd exchanges or questionable advice. According to data from Statista, nearly 30 percent of global Instagram users are between the ages of 18 and 24, a demographic particularly vulnerable to influence and in many cases, manipulation.

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India’s regulatory framework is racing to catch up. While the government has issued advisories on deepfakes and is in the process of finalizing the Digital Personal Data Protection Act (DPDP), experts argue the systems in place lack the capacity for real enforcement.

“AI models update weekly, but legal frameworks move at a glacial pace,” said Bhatia. “Only 1 percent of cyber fraud cases are resolved. The law isn’t ready.”

Technical audits remain thin on the ground. Legal guidance is fragmented across the IT Act, consumer protections, and sector-specific directives. And despite Meta’s claims of safety features, police and investigators often receive little cooperation from platforms when probing fake or malicious accounts.

The psychological impact may be even more profound. Constant validation from AI, experts say, could weaken young people’s ability to deal with rejection or form nuanced interpersonal connections.

“There’s a cognitive cost,” said Bhatia. “The more you engage with one-dimensional sources of information, the more you stop experimenting or thinking critically. That affects brain development.”

Governments worldwide now face a difficult balancing act: enabling innovation while safeguarding mental health, privacy and public safety.

“There needs to be a collective response - researchers, policymakers, tech companies and civil society must work together,” said Kumari. “Otherwise, we risk raising a generation that turns to machines not just for answers, but for affirmation.”

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A growing bond at what cost? How AI chatbots are mining emotions on social media

As WPP begins the search for its next chief executive following the planned year-end departure of Mark Read, one name is drawing both internal attention and external speculation: Brian Lesser.

Lesser, the CEO of WPP Media, is widely seen as the most probable, and perhaps only, candidate with a mandate and momentum strong enough to lead the advertising conglomerate through one of the most transformational periods in its history. While the board, led by newly appointed chair and former BT Group CEO Philip Jansen, has yet to announce a shortlist, industry insiders suggest the decision may already be made in all but name.

One senior media executive familiar with WPP’s internal dynamics said, “He’s the only one building something future-facing at scale," adding, “Brian Lesser is definitely in the big picture.” 

Mark Read’s announcement this week ends a six-year tenure as CEO and a three-decade career at WPP, during which he steered the company through a post-Sorrell recovery, numerous acquisitions and divestitures and an increasingly digitized advertising ecosystem. But his departure comes as WPP grapples with a sagging stock price, sliding to a four-year low, and broader headwinds from AI disruption, media fragmentation and commodification and the declining relevance of legacy agency structures.

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Since taking over in 2018, Read implemented a series of structural reforms - merging agencies, investing in technology and repositioning WPP as a modern marketing player. He oversaw the launch of WPP Open, an AI-powered platform now used by tens of thousands of employees, and recently folded GroupM into a newly branded, centralized media division - WPP Media, under Lesser’s leadership.

While Read deserves credit for stabilizing WPP, even his supporters admit that a steadier hand is not what the company needs next.

Using an aviation and engineering analogy, an India-based WPP creative agency executive said, “Read was the pilot who landed WPP safely after the turbulence of the Sorrell era. But now the company needs an engineer and possibly a demolition expert. Lesser’s proving he can do both.”

Lesser, a seasoned media executive who previously ran Xandr - AT&T's advertising and analytics unit, and helped establish GroupM as a performance powerhouse, has taken a surgical approach to WPP’s transformation. He is leading a consolidation drive aimed at eliminating redundancy, streamlining teams and embedding AI into every part of the media operation. Insiders say Lesser is less interested in legacy and more focused on making WPP fit for the next decade.

<a href="https://www.storyboard18.com/brand-makers/groupm-axes-global-ceo-positions-across-agencies-streamlines-leadership-under-ceo-brian-lesser-54175.htm">Read more: GroupM axes global CEO positions across agencies, streamlines leadership under CEO Brian Lesser</a>

In an internal memo earlier this year, Lesser outlined plans to reshape WPP Media into a unified, tech-first platform. His language was blunt: difficult decisions, overlapping roles and organizational clarity. He had also reportedly framed GroupM’s plans to transition to a ‘single operating model’ and indicated the forthcoming ‘sunsetting’ of ‘agency-specific titles’ across various markets. Layoffs and restructures followed. 

Meanwhile fast changes in the creative stable at WPP were underway too with the folding of venerable creative agency Grey into Ogilvy, a sign of the accelerated rationalization across the ad holdco. Since Read merged Y&R and VML in September 2018, the first in a long line of agency consolidations, WPP has seemed locked in a state of constant reinvention.

Lesser can "build WPP’s future as a AI-powered, performance-driven adtech company" said a media executive. 

That approach is resonating at a time when global peers are also evolving. Publicis Groupe has overtaken WPP in revenue and now positions itself as a data-first consultancy, while Omnicom and Interpublic are reportedly exploring a merger to consolidate market share. In contrast, WPP’s sprawling legacy operations face both regulatory scrutiny and internal friction.

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In India, a market central to WPP’s global footprint, the company is navigating an ongoing antitrust investigation into media trading practices. Although WPP has not publicly responded, the probe has added to pressures in a market where it still dominates but now faces growing competition from independent and digital-native rivals.

Meanwhile, global clients are less interested in agency lineage and more focused on delivery. “Clients don’t want creative storytelling decks anymore,” said an executive at a major global advertiser. “They want platforms that produce results.”

Lesser’s background in both media and technology, with stints at GroupM North America, Xandr, and now WPP Media, positions him uniquely to lead WPP’s transition from a traditional agency network to a platform-driven marketing engine. His fluency in AI, performance marketing and enterprise technology could help WPP compete with Silicon Valley heavyweights as much as Madison Avenue incumbents.

And while Read poured over £300 million into AI initiatives like WPP Open, recently acquired a data collaboration platform - InfoSum, and completed high-profile divestitures such as the sale of FGS Global to KKR, the next phase requires investments and execution.

“Brian Lesser is already acting like the CEO WPP needs,” said one senior consultant. “The only question is whether the board is ready to catch up to its own future.”

With Read slated to stay on until December and the formal search underway, WPP has a narrowing window to signal stability and a clear direction.

If the company wants to survive the AI wave, win back blue-chip clients and stay ahead of its rivals, observers say the choice is simple: make Brian Lesser CEO. Anything else would be a retreat into the past. 

Unlike the abrupt and dramatic departure of Sir Martin Sorrell, WPP is steering the narrative this time. Announcing Read’s December-due exit just a week ahead of Cannes Lions may not be ideal, but the move helps preempt leadership speculation from eclipsing its planned showcase of WPP Media and AI on the Croisette. Still, all eyes, and the festival buzz, are likely to center on Brian Lesser.

Could Brian Lesser, the architect of WPP Media's reinvention, be the likely successor to Mark Read as WPP CEO?

Mark Read, the chief executive of WPP, will step down at the end of the year, concluding a three-decade tenure at one the world's largest advertising holding companies. The move comes as the British firm contends with a sagging share price and mounting pressures from the rapid adoption of artificial intelligence across the marketing industry.

<a href="https://www.storyboard18.com/brand-makers/wpp-to-soon-communicate-new-structure-to-all-partners-69392.htm">Read more: WPP likely to communicate new structure to all partners in India; Global CEO Mark Read announces exit</a>

<a href="https://www.storyboard18.com/brand-makers/all-you-need-to-know-about-mark-read-the-quiet-transformer-behind-wpps-new-age-69417.htm">Read more: All you need to know about Mark Read: The quiet transformer behind WPP's new age</a>

WPP confirmed Read’s planned departure on Monday, signaling a leadership transition during one of the most volatile moments in recent memory for global advertising. 

Read, 58, will remain in his post through December while the board, led by newly appointed chair Philip Jansen, searches for a successor. Jansen, the former BT Group chief executive, praised Read’s role in modernizing WPP, calling him “central to transforming the company into a world leader in modern marketing services.”

In a note to employees, Read acknowledged the timing was not perfect, but added that it feels like the "right time" for him. During his six-year tenure as CEO, Read sought to overhaul WPP’s sprawling structure through a series of integrations and consolidations. 

Just this year, WPP folded its media investment arm GroupM under a new identity - WPP Media, in an effort to create a more unified, tech-first media offering. In an internal memo, WPP Media CEO Brian Lesser reportedly laid out a centralization strategy aimed at making the organization “a stronger, more connected company.” 

He acknowledged that the transformation would require “difficult decisions,” including restructuring teams and cutting overlapping roles - changes that are expected to affect staff across multiple markets. Reports of layoffs and workforce reductions have been surfacing in recent weeks.

WPP also announced that Grey, the nearly century-old creative agency, would be integrated under Ogilvy’s leadership, a move aimed at reducing duplication and fostering cross-agency collaboration. 

<a href="https://www.storyboard18.com/brand-makers/groupm-axes-global-ceo-positions-across-agencies-streamlines-leadership-under-ceo-brian-lesser-54175.htm">Read more: GroupM axes global CEO positions across agencies, streamlines leadership under CEO Brian Lesser</a>

<a href="https://www.storyboard18.com/advertising/consolidation-or-collision-how-ad-lands-mergers-create-crisis-of-overlapping-of-leadership-roles-68180.htm">Read more: Consolidation or Collision? How ad land’s mergers create crisis of overlapping of leadership roles</a>

Despite these reforms, WPP has struggled to keep pace with global competitors. It lost its crown as the world’s largest ad holding company by revenue to France’s Publicis Groupe last year, while US rivals Omnicom and Interpublic Group are pursuing a merger that would create a dominant American player in the global order. 

Indeed 2025 has been a turbulent year for WPP, with its stock hitting a four-year low, the loss of major accounts like Coca-Cola’s North America media business and Paramount’s media mandate, and a bungled rollout of its four-day in-office return policy. WPP’s new business pipeline has shown signs of recovery, with notable wins and key account retentions including Amazon, Johnson & Johnson, Kimberly-Clark and Unilever.

WPP has also faced significant headwinds in its key international markets. In India, one of its most strategically important and fastest-growing regions, WPP remains the largest advertising holding company, with dominant positions across media and creative services. WPP India also kicked off 2025 with major business wins including Amazon, Godrej Consumer and Hero Motocorp. However, the company has not been immune to recent scrutiny. 

In May, the Competition Commission of India conducted raids on several media buying agencies, including units affiliated with WPP, as part of an ongoing investigation into alleged anti-competitive practices in media trading. While WPP has not commented on the matter, industry observers say the probe could result in tighter oversight of agency operations in one of the world’s most dynamic ad markets.

Globally, WPP is grappling with broader industry shifts. Traditional media formats, particularly print and television, continue to decline in importance, replaced by digital channels dominated by platforms like Meta and Google. Read has championed the use of artificial intelligence to help WPP adapt, with the company’s proprietary platform, WPP Open, now used by more than 50,000 employees for creative development and media planning. He has doubled down on AI-driven transformation - investing £300 million into WPP Open, and acquiring data clean room firm InfoSum.

Read has said previously, the company had emerged from a difficult restructuring phase and was poised to rebuild its business with AI at its core. That strategy was underlined by WPP’s $767 million sale of its controlling stake in the public relations firm FGS Global to private equity firm KKR last year, a move intended to streamline the company’s portfolio and raise capital for technology investments. 

In March, reports suggested that Bain Capital and WPP PLC are likely to break up and sell market research company Kantar Group. They stated that both firms were looking to cash in on their investment to have the sale generate more reliable returns. Bain Capital acquired a 60% stake in Kantar in 2019, valuing the company at around $4 billion, while WPP retained a minority share.

“We needed to make many difficult decisions that were necessary to serve our clients better, simplify the company, build our culture and put WPP on a more solid financial footing,” Read wrote in his farewell note to staff. He also cited a tumultuous external environment - from the Covid-19 pandemic to the war in Ukraine - as defining challenges during his leadership.

<a href="https://www.storyboard18.com/agency-news/wpp-unveils-ai-powered-wpp-media-replacing-groupm-in-major-strategic-shift-67746.htm">Read more: WPP unveils AI-Powered WPP Media, replacing GroupM in major strategic shift</a>

<a href="https://www.storyboard18.com/brand-makers/wpp-ceo-mark-read-to-retired-in-december-2025-search-for-a-successor-is-underway-69367.htm">Read more: WPP CEO Mark Read to step down; ad holdco says search for a successor is underway</a>

Still, Read remained upbeat about WPP’s outlook, stating that he strongly believes that the future for WPP is a very positive one. He said, "The current environment may be challenging for every business but I’ve every confidence in our people and our capabilities. The future for WPP is a bright one, and clients understand the long-term value of what we do."

While he's poured millions into a leaner, AI-equipped WPP, Read acknowledged a fundamental truth of the advertising business. "It’s our people who make things happen, support one another, come up with ideas, inspire our clients, figure out an ever more complicated media world and produce work of such great craft and impact," he said. "Despite all our investments in technology, we are ultimately a people business."

<a href="https://www.storyboard18.com/advertising/global-mergers-local-ripples-consolidations-reshape-indias-ad-land-as-clients-seek-single-window-partners-67505.htm">Read more: Global Mergers, Local Ripples: Consolidations reshape India's ad land as clients seek 'single-window' partners</a>

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