Vice President Development, Prototyping & Innovation

WPP introduces AI agents in finance, HR and customer relationship management. In a Microsoft-published conversation, WPP's Dominic Shine connects the rollout to a wider reorganization, with Copilot as employees' entry point. The audio brief. About 1:44 Read transcript Story brief. 3 key points WPP is tying its next phase of AI adoption to Elevate 28, its effort to operate as an integrated global company, with agents intended to handle work across finance, HR and customer relationship management. Employees are expected to reach the tools through Microsoft 365 Copilot. The plan extends WPP's use of Microsoft technology beyond advertising and campaign work, but the company has not supplied a rollout timetable or measured efficiency gains, so the operational impact remains unverified. * 01 WPP's "Brains" tools use brand identity, audience, channel and prior campaign data to support content development and recommendations. * 02 WPP and Microsoft executives cited leadership, employee skills, trusted data and responsible governance as conditions for adoption. * 03 The agents are intended to reduce repetitive work, but WPP has not reported measured efficiency gains. WPP is introducing AI agents in finance, human resources and customer relationship management, taking its AI effort beyond advertising production into internal operations. In a conversation published by Microsoft on October 19, WPP executive Dominic Shine described a plan that puts Microsoft 365 Copilot at employees' entry point to the company's AI tools. From campaign work to internal operations. Speaking with Microsoft UK and Ireland CEO Darren Hardman, Shine described AI as already affecting WPP's work from image and video generation to media planning and campaign performance. The discussion was published as part of Microsoft's UNFRAMED series, making it a company-hosted account of the deployment rather than an independent assessment of its results. On the creative side, WPP combines its expertise and customer data with Microsoft AI. Its specialist tools, called "Brains," use information about a brand's identity, audiences, channels and previous campaign results. Microsoft describes them as helping teams develop content and make recommendations, grounding that assistance in information specific to the brand and its past work. Copilot becomes the entry point. The internal agents have a different stated purpose: reducing repetitive work and improving efficiency across business functions. Microsoft 365 Copilot is central to WPP's plans as the place employees enter these tools. The announcement describes the direction of that rollout, but provides no timetable or measured efficiency gains. Shine tied Microsoft's technology to Elevate 28, WPP's strategy to reorganize and operate as an integrated global company. He described the technology as fundamentally important to that effort. That places the tools within an organizational change program, not just the creative tasks discussed earlier in the conversation. Adoption requires more than access. Both executives emphasized leadership, employee skills, trusted data and responsible governance as conditions for successful adoption. They framed the goal as supporting human creativity rather than replacing it, giving employees more capacity to create, make decisions and serve clients. Those are the stated aims of the deployment, not demonstrated outcomes. Sources. * ukstories.microsoft.comHow WPP is giving its people 'AI superpowers' to reshape advertising

Fox expands AI-powered linear TV ad buying with agencies. Fox says the platform has progressed from technical demonstrations to executing transactions for live advertising campaigns. [email protected] October 15, 2026 Fox Corporation's television advertising business Fox Advertising has started executing linear TV ads transactions through its artificial intelligence-powered Fox AdStudio platform, working with several major advertising agencies and technology companies to automate portions of the traditional television media buying process. On Thursday, Fox Advertising said WPP, Omnicom, Horizon Media, Stagwell and Simulmedia are using its agent-to-agent technology for live advertising campaigns. The development follows Fox's introduction of the platform in June, when the company demonstrated how AI agents could support audience planning, media transactions and campaign activation. Fox first introduced the technology in June, demonstrating how AI could be used throughout the advertising process. The latest development puts those capabilities to work on actual campaigns rather than technical demonstrations. Under the new system, an advertising agency can use its own AI software to communicate with Fox's advertising platform. The two systems can exchange campaign information, identify available commercial spots and complete certain transactions without requiring employees to manually coordinate every step. The technology can also recommend alternatives when a requested commercial spot is unavailable: Rather than simply removing that placement from an ad order, Fox's system can suggest another spot that reaches a similar audience. The platform includes security controls and a monitoring system designed to ensure transactions follow established rules, the company affirmed. Fox employees and workers at agency partners will continue making important decisions about campaigns, with AI handling some of the work involved in carrying them out. "Now, together with our partners, we're putting those capabilities to work on live campaigns - moving agentic advertising from capability to real-world execution while maintaining the governance and human oversight essential to doing it responsibly," Jeff Collins, the President of Fox Advertising, Marketing and Brand Partnerships, said in a statement on Thursday. The participating agencies are connecting their existing advertising systems to Fox AdStudio. Omnicom is using its Omni platform to help advertisers select audiences and purchase individual television spots, while Horizon Media is working with technology company Databricks to connect its advertising systems with Fox. Stagwell is using its Media Machine platform to help turn advertiser requests into media plans, and WPP is testing live transactions as part of its broader work to develop standards for AI-powered advertising. (WPP in June announced a partnership with Fox and others to standardize the use of artificial intelligence for TV and video advertising.) Simulmedia is also participating, with a focus on using campaign results to make changes to television advertising schedules. Those results could include website visits, app downloads and purchases attributed to commercials. The technology could make traditional TV ad inventory easier to purchase and adjust, bringing some of the automation already common in digital advertising to broadcast and cable TV, Fox said. Fox did not disclose how many advertising transactions have been completed through the platform, how much money those transactions represent or whether the system has reduced costs for advertisers. Fox Corporation is expected to publish its next financial earnings report in early November.