After another record year ahead of
expectations,Publicis unveils AI strategy to lead
group into its second century
Six years after shifting from a holding
company to a platform,Publicis is putting AI at
its core to become the industry’s
first Intelligent System
January 25, 2024 – Paris –
After significantly outperforming its industry for the fourth year
in a row, with organic growth of +6.3% in 2023, Publicis
Groupe [Euronext Paris FR0000130577, CAC
40] today set out its strategy to become the industry’s
first AI-powered Intelligent System.
Click here to see the hour-long presentation by
Arthur Sadoun, global CEO, Carla Serrano, global CSO, Nigel Vaz,
CEO Publicis Sapient, Dave Penski, CEO Publicis Media & Sam
Levine Archer, Chief Solutions Architect Publicis North
America.
Presentation overview:
From a Platform to an Intelligent System
Company
In the last 6 years, Publicis has truly become a
partner in its clients’ transformation. Through 3 strategic bets –
putting data and technology at the center with the acquisition of
Sapient and Epsilon, implementing a country model, and building a
single operational backbone – it has shifted from a holding company
to a platform.
That platform organization has allowed Publicis
to outperform the market on both financial and extra-financial
KPIs. But it also now uniquely positions the group to fully harness
the power of AI, to become an Intelligent System company capable of
connecting every data point, from across every expertise, business
unit and geography, and putting them into the hands of all of its
people.
In short, thanks to the shift to an Intelligent
System company, everyone within Publicis will become a data
analyst, an engineer, an intelligence partner, with all the
information they need at their fingertips to supercharge client
growth.
An ambition that is already a
reality
Concretely, Publicis is infusing a layer of AI
across its platform organization to connect its enterprise
knowledge under one entity: CoreAI.
The group is building this unifying AI-led
foundation in-house and across its full enterprise, thanks to
Publicis Sapient’s unrivalled AI expertise and partnerships, which
span designing chips for Nvidia that are used in the training of AI
models like ChatGPT, to developing AI-powered digital consumer
journeys across multiple industries.
Sitting at the center of the group, CoreAI
unifies all of Publicis’ proprietary data including the leading
consumer data across 2.3 billion profiles of people around the
world, with trillions of data points about content, media, and
business performance, and almost a petabyte of assets on Marcel,
all combined with 35 years of business transformation data and
coding owned exclusively by Publicis Sapient.
CoreAI makes those trillions of data points
shareable and accessible to everyone at Publicis, super powering
them across 5 key disciplines:
- Insight: Brilliant strategy, accurate analyses, and business
consultant-level intelligence will power all marketing strategy and
plans, transforming everyone into intelligence partners who
architect client growth.
- Media: Media planning, buying and optimization will deliver new
levels of accuracy and outcomes positioning clients to win at
commerce sooner and faster.
- Creative + Production: Personalized content will finally be
realized at scale, with efficiencies and highly relevant, desirable
creative.
- Software: The best software and digitally enabled products will
be brought to market at scale in days and weeks not months.
- Operations: Groupe operations and client management systems
will be boosted with speed, accuracy and efficiency.
Publicis plans to invest three hundred million euros over
the next three years as it becomes a true Intelligent System. For
2024 alone, the group anticipates an investment of one hundred
million euros, with 50% on people, focused on upskilling, training
and recruitment, and 50% on technology, through licenses, IT
software and cloud infrastructure.
The group began engineering CoreAI in the second
half of 2023 and plans to iteratively roll out capabilities in the
first half of 2024. It will present MVPs at Viva Tech 2024 this
upcoming May.
*****
Arthur Sadoun, CEO & Chairman of Publicis
Groupe commented: “Our journey from a holding company to a platform
has not been easy, but it definitely paid off, as you can see with
our 2023 organic growth outperforming the industry for the fourth
year in a row. The platform organization we have built over the
last decade, our proprietary data of unmatched breadth and
accuracy, and the 45,000 engineers, consultants and data analysts
at the heart of our model, uniquely position us to push the
boundaries even further by leveraging AI.
Putting CoreAI at the heart of our organization
and truly becoming an Intelligent System company will make our
people more efficient and more productive. But way more
importantly, it will allow everyone to do things tomorrow that no
one can do today, guided by the highest ethical standards, and at
the service of our clients’ growth.
As we enter our second century, we are confident
that all of the efforts we have made to transform and the ongoing
investment we are making in our people and technology will allow
Publicis to continue to outperform its peers on organic growth,
sustain the highest financial KPIs, and lead the change in our
industry.”
*****
About the financial impact of our AI
Plan
The investment in AI of 100 million euros in 2024 will be fully
funded by internal efficiencies. It will have no dilutive impact on
Groupe’s Operating margin in 2024 and it will be slightly accretive
on Operating margin in 2025.
About 2023 Preliminary Full Year and Fourth Quarter Net
Revenue (non audited)
Publicis Groupe today pre-releases its Fourth Quarter and
Full Year 2023 net revenue. Full details of the 2023 Audited Annual
Results will be published on 8 February 2024, before
the market opens.
Full year organic
growth came in at +6.3%, above
the +5.5% to +6% guidance range last upgraded in October.
This included a stronger than anticipated finish
to the year, with +5.7% organic growth in the fourth
quarter.
Media, one third of net
revenue, grew by double digits organically on the year,
accelerating in Q4 supported by a faster ramp up in new
business. Data & tech activities, another
third, were very solid on the year while seeing contrasting
trends. Epsilon recorded circa +10% organic growth in 2023,
further accelerating in H2 with double-digit growth in Q4, led by
the rise in demand for first-party data. As anticipated,
Publicis Sapient saw ongoing delays in digital business
transformation projects, like all comparable IT consulting firms,
posting +3% organic growth on the year despite a
modest decline in Q4. Creative was
again very resilient in both the full year and Q4, with low
single-digit organic growth.
On a regional basis, the strength of our model
was visible in all geographies in both the full year and in
Q4.
The U.S., 60% of revenue,
delivered a remarkable +5.0% organic growth for the year,
accelerating to +6.1% in
Q4. Europe organically grew at +10.3% in
2023, with Q4 at +4.3% despite high comparables, notably in the
UK. Asia posted +2.9% organic growth on
the year, accelerating to a very solid +4.0% in Q4 led by China
returning to growth. Middle East and
Africa grew organically by +12.4% in the full year
and +9.7% in Q4, and Latin America +8.9%
in the full year and +13.9% in Q4.
Breakdown of FY 2023 net revenue by region
Breakdown of Q4 2023 net revenue by region
Disclaimer
2023 numbers presented today are preliminary and
non audited. Certain information contained in this document, other
than historical information, may constitute forward-looking
statements or unaudited financial forecasts. These
forward-looking statements and forecasts are subject to risks and
uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially
from those projected. These forward-looking statements and
forecasts are presented at the date of this document and, other
than as required by applicable law, Publicis Groupe does not assume
any obligation to update them to reflect new information or events
or for any other reason. Publicis Groupe urges you to carefully
consider the risk factors that may affect its business, as set out
in the Universal Registration Document filed with the French
Autorité des Marchés Financiers (AMF) and which is available on the
website of Publicis Groupe (www.publicisgroupe.com), including an
unfavorable economic climate, a highly competitive industry,
risks associated with the confidentiality of personal data, the
Groupe’s business dependence on its management and employees, risks
associated with mergers and acquisitions, risks of IT system
failures and cybercrime, the possibility that our clients could
seek to terminate their contracts with us on short notice, risks
associated with the reorganization of the Groupe, risks of
litigation, governmental, legal and arbitration proceedings, risks
associated with the Groupe’s financial rating and exposure to
liquidity risks.
About Publicis Groupe - The Power of
OnePublicis Groupe [Euronext Paris FR0000130577, CAC 40]
is a global leader in communication. The Groupe is positioned at
every step of the value chain, from consulting to execution,
combining marketing transformation and digital business
transformation. Publicis Groupe is a privileged partner in its
clients’ transformation to enhance personalization at scale. The
Groupe relies on ten expertise concentrated within four main
activities: Communication, Media, Data and Technology. Through a
unified and fluid organization, its clients have a facilitated
access to all its expertise in every market. Present in over 100
countries, Publicis Groupe employs around 101,000
professionals.www.publicisgroupe.com| Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn
| YouTube | Instagram | Viva la Difference!
Contacts Publicis Groupe
Amy
Hadfield
Director of Global
Communications
+ 33 (0)1 44 43 70 75
amy.hadfield@publicisgroupe.com
Alessandra Girolami
Investor Relations
+ 33 (0)1 44 43 77 88
alessandra.girolami@publicisgroupe.comJean-Michel Bonamy
Investor
Relations
+ 33 (0)1 44 43 74
88
jean-michel.bonamy@publicisgroupe.com
Please find the press release here
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