We Brits can be a sceptical bunch, doubting that things are here to stay. When trailblazers We Are Social sold to Bluefocus in 2013 there were sceptics who thought “social” might just be a flash in the pan. We kicked-off the sale process by meeting the head of M&A at one of the world’s four leading HoldoCos. Odd meeting. In their view, Robin and Nathan were just looking for nice houses in Surrey as it was obvious, to them, that within a couple of years, “social” would disappear and simply become a sub-set of PR. Whoops.
Why the nostalgia? Wind forwards a decade and ask ourselves whether gen AI is another unquestionable flash in the pan. This time I don’t think there’s anyone that could get this call wrong; we just don’t know how profound its ultimate impact will be on society as a whole. Our industry can’t and won’t turn back; the numbers speak louder than the many words.
Over the past decade, Publicis Groupe alone has invested an estimated $12.4b in data, technology, and AI capabilities, and it’s not slowing down. Last year, Publicis committed an additional €300m over three years, evenly split between infrastructure and talent. At the centre of this investment is, CoreAI.
WPP arguably isn’t making as much noise, but its £75m acquisition of Satalia in 2021, a UK-based AI optimisation company, was an early sign of intent and its pace is accelerating. In 2025, it is raising its annual investment in AI and technology to £300m, up from £250m last year. These funds are fuelling WPP Open, its flagship AI-enabled operating platform, and high-profile partnerships with firms like Stability AI.
Omnicom has taken a different approach and the IPG deal has stolen all the recent headlines, but its 2024 acquisition of Flywheel for $835m was the biggest M&A cheque it has ever written, and it has also launched internal tools such as ArtBotAI and OmniAssist. In 2024, IPG itself announced a $100m investment into AI development, and recently acquired firm Intelligence Node Intelligence Node for a further $100m. With the merger looming, at some point the narrative will swing fully and loudly from cost efficiencies to positioning around data and AI.
As always, there’s a heap of data that can be cut in all manner of ways, so broad strokes work best. At face value, the Big 4 are organically investing in the realms of $1– $2Bn per year in AI, data, and technology. Probably reasonable to assume this will be an ongoing trend for at least the next five years and that M&A dollars might double this sum. And in such a competitive and fragmented market, where the Big 4 invest so must others.
But what of the real competition, Alphabet and Meta? The numbers speak for themselves. Try this on Chat GPT given this is about AI – it’s staggering. Between them they’re predicted to spend in the region of $130Bn on AI in 2025 alone. How do agencies continue to stay in touch with the platforms, with this kind of disparity?
