In the world of marketing, artificial intelligence tends to get the most attention when it is featured prominently in splashy creative advertising campaigns from big brands like Coca-Cola and Nike.
But at WPP—whose client roster includes Google, L’Oréal, LVMH, and Mastercard—Chief Technology Officer Stephan Pretorius says the advertising giant’s big “mic drop” moment has been the soaring adoption of WPP Open, an AI-enabled operating system that’s used by marketers to plan, create, and run campaigns. More than 85,000 of the agency’s 108,000 employees are using WPP Open on a monthly basis today, up sharply from 30,000 in February 2024.
“Getting that balance right and making sure that humans are in control of the output and that they evaluate and apply taste and judgment, but also that the thought process is expanded and augmented—so you don’t become like a passive passenger in the process—is really critical,” says Pretorius.
Pretorius says WPP has embraced three levels of AI training to get the workforce ready for these AI tools. At the entry level, WPP runs a creative technology apprenticeship program, which it recently expanded under the company’s five-year, $400 million partnership with Google. The program aims to train 1,000 creative technology apprentices over the next three years, helping college graduates learn about AI and other technologies before they join one of WPP’s agencies.
