Publicis Groupe uses AI to send 100k personalized videos to employees
When I was at Razorfish, the annual Publicis Groupe holiday greetings were something I always looked forward to. It was great to see senior leadership showing off their lighter side (or, when appropriate - a very serious side). This year’s greeting turned into an AI-powered personalized message that seems like it took a village of Groupe employees and a handful of tech partners to pull off. Fun stuff…
Publicis Groupe usually creates a holiday video for its employees, which it shares with the industry, and usually those videos are lighthearted and have fun with the two folks at the top of the business—CEO Arthur Sadoun and chairman of the supervisory board Maurice Lévy.
Last year, the video took a more serious turn, with the film raising awareness about the human papillomavirus (HPV), while still having some fun along the way. This year, Publicis skipped the holiday video in favor of an experiment with AI that found the Groupe creating 100,000 personal thank you Wish List films for its employees, and the ambitious project may have practical uses for clients as the technology progresses at a rapid pace.
The films all start with Sadoun talking about 2023 being a year of firsts for Publicis in the holding company world—first in organic growth, first in all financial KPIs, first in new business, first in ESG, first in market cap. He then says he wants to thank each employee individually, which he regrets isn’t possible—until his AI twin enters the room.
AI Sadoun tells the real one that it is indeed possible, through AI, to individually give thanks to each employee. He uses Eva, a sport-loving Groupe managing partner living in Austria, as an example, showing off his (fake) tattoo and talking fluently in German. Carla Serrano, Publicis Groupe chief strategy officer, then enters and is seen climbing a mountain, playing tennis and dancing ballet… or is she?
