The holding company boss tells The Drum how his group’s understated approach to AI has become a key competitive strength – one now translating into tangible growth across the business.
Publicis Groupe CEO Arthur Sadoun
Arthur Sadoun has been markedly less prone to AI boosterism than some of his counterparts running agencies. That may be starting to change.
On Tuesday, Publicis Groupe reported third-quarter organic revenue growth of 5.7%, ahead of expectations and marking another period of outperformance. The holding company upgraded its full-year guidance for the second time this year, now forecasting organic growth between 5% and 5.5%, up from ‘close to 5%.’
That acceleration, Sadoun told The Drum, is being fueled by what he describes as ‘booming demand’ for AI-powered products and services.
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Net revenue for the quarter reached €3.53bn, up from €3.42bn a year earlier. Growth was driven by a 7.1% organic increase in the US, the group’s largest market, and a standout 10.7% surge in the UK. Europe as a whole lagged at 2.8%.
Connected Media, which accounts for around 60% of group revenue, grew in the high single digits, powered by Epsilon’s data engine. Intelligent Creativity, the unit that includes Publicis’s AI-enabled production platform, rose mid-single digits overall, with double-digit gains in production driven by rising demand for personalized content. Publicis Sapient’s technology business also returned to positive territory despite continued caution in enterprise IT spending.
Sadoun says the company’s confidence stems from the fact that its AI strategy, built quietly over several years, is now delivering measurable results.
“The reason why we are talking more openly about it today is we are starting to have concrete financial results,” he said. “Our AI strategy is now translating into business outcomes for Publicis and for our clients. And that’s what has changed: we have moved from the strategy to the execution to the results.”
Publicis’s approach differs from rivals that have leaned heavily on branded AI platforms. While WPP touts its ‘Open’ ecosystem and Omnicom promotes ‘OmniAI,’ Publicis has focused on artificial intelligence under the hood, combining data (Epsilon), consulting (Sapient) and creative under its CoreAI infrastructure.
Sadoun said that evolution mirrors a shift in client behavior.
“Clients have understood that AI can’t be just an experiment. It has to deliver a business outcome. So they are making an arbitrage between the partners that can deliver these kinds of results and the ones that are still in the field.”
Despite one analyst recently describing ad agencies’ time-honored payment models as a “death sentence,” Sadoun rejected the idea that automation would inevitably trigger fee pressure. Instead, he argued that brands are focused on total-marketing efficiency rather than squeezing agency retainers.
“Clients have been asking for fee reductions since I started in this business 25 years ago,” he said. “The big difference is that clients now come with a very different ask – how can I, thanks to AI, reduce my overall marketing costs? But they are not reducing the argument to our fees.”
Asked how the group is charging for its AI capabilities, Sadoun pointed to the company’s long-term investment.
“This is the big difference. We have been investing €12bn over 10 years in data, technology and AI. The products we charge today for our clients already have these capabilities embedded in our tariffs. This is the reason why, not only are we going faster, but we also have the best margin.”
He added that Publicis’s ability to connect paid media, commerce, influencer marketing and CRM through its identity graph is now a major competitive advantage.
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“Clients are starting to understand that it’s not only about producing cheaper, better, faster content, it’s about making sure that content is connected to the right audience and delivered through the right channel.”
Despite the technical focus, Sadoun insisted that creativity remains central to Publicis’s model.
“I am still a big believer that a big creative idea will change the future of a company,” he said. “Great creative work increases the perceived price of a product and generates margin. Now we can deliver, thanks to AI, content that’s intelligent and measurable across every channel.”
Sadoun’s optimism comes just days after Forrester forecast that 15% of agency jobs will be eliminated in 2026, as automation accelerates across creative and media functions. Asked about the report, Sadoun acknowledged that AI will inevitably reshape the industry but rejected the idea that current job cuts are caused by it.
“OK, so there is a truth in what Forrester is saying, which is that AI will definitely take some jobs in the future. But first, it will take time, and if you see people who are getting fired at the moment, it is not because of AI.”
He said Publicis was using its internal AI platform, Marcel, to reskill and reallocate staff as new roles emerge.
“Of course, there will be some jobs that will disappear, but we’re going to be able to reallocate people. The best way to preserve jobs is to grow. We are confident for our people, because we are growing faster than the market and we’ll be able to preserve jobs as long as we continue to grow.”
Publicis expects its momentum to continue into the fourth quarter, with net new billings already surpassing the 2024 total.
“We are not experiencing any material marketing budget cuts,” Sadoun said. “You take the fact that there is no slowdown, plus this booming demand for AI, and you understand why we’re able to move roughly from four to five, which was our guidance at the beginning, to aiming for five and a half.”
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Publicis Groupe
Publicis Groupe is a French multinational advertising and public relations company. One of the oldest and largest marketing and communications companies in the world,...