'Upskilling is the priority to harnessing AI' - Omnicom CEO John Wren

It's an incredibly important moment for John Wren as he finalises the deal that will see Omnicom Group tie up with American rival IPG. This Cannes Lions Festival will allow him to further pave the way for that to happen before the end of this summer.

However, he still has the business to run day-to-day, too, and meeting clients' expectations around AI solutions while continuing to integrate those tools across his agencies remains key.

Here he discusses what the impact of those tools has been, and where things are going next.

How has AI already accelerated impact in your business? Any standout examples? Where are you seeing the biggest gains — speed, scale, quality?

What sets Omnicom apart is our unwavering commitment to a platform strategy—one we began investing in over a decade ago. With the integration of Omni data and Flywheel Commerce Cloud data in early 2024, our teams have had unprecedented access to one of the industry’s most comprehensive datasets, spanning consumer behavior, demographics, transactions, and campaign performance.

Because these platforms are fully embedded across our organisation, we’ve been able to seamlessly empower our people with cutting-edge generative AI capabilities. Our journey started in 2023, piloting generative AI assistants within our core platforms, leveraging both large language and image models. By 2024, we were able to operationalize these capabilities at scale - utilizing the best-in-class LLMs and reasoning models to streamline workflows and accelerate creative ideation.

Now, in 2025, we’re seeing that investment translate into tangible value for our clients. Our enterprise agentic framework, OmniAI, sits atop our industry-leading platforms and infuses machine intelligence at every stage of the marketing and commerce workflow. This allows our talent to amplify their creativity, push boundaries, and deliver breakthrough solutions for our clients.

As AI takes on more of the heavy lifting, where do you see it starting to lead beyond just support? Media planning? Strategy? Creative?

One of the most exciting frontiers we’re exploring with generative AI is the use of intelligent agents representing synthetic audiences, all grounded in our robust consumer data assets. These synthetic audiences are opening new possibilities - not just by sharpening our strategic insights and creative briefs, but by enabling us to rigorously test strategies and creative concepts before we commit to full production and activation. This capability is empowering our teams to explore a broader range of ideas and ultimately deliver more effective, impactful outcomes for our clients.

In an AI-driven landscape, where core capabilities are increasingly commoditised, what will truly differentiate one agency from another?

Everyone will say that data is going to be the true differentiator. And to a certain degree, that is true. It is precisely why we have made such massive investments in our data and platform strategy over the last decade. However, we believe the true differentiator, even in a world of AI, will always be our people. Delivering the types of outcomes our clients expect will always require the perfect marriage between human intelligence and machine intelligence.

What new roles or functions has AI prompted in your organisation? What future roles do you anticipate emerging?

First, I want to note that AI touches every part of our business already. We have operationalised Omni and Flywheel Commerce Cloud across our entire organisation, and that’s given us the vehicle to embed AI across the company. Upskilling our people across every discipline is a big priority so that everyone can harness AI in their work.

We’ve also created new roles focused on AI and have launched an AI consortium to bring together experts from across Omnicom. Looking ahead, we anticipate even more specialised roles emerging — such as AI agent orchestrators and AI integration strategists — especially as we lean into agentic frameworks and aim to democratise it across our entire organisation.

Heading into the summer frenzy that is the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity, the leaders of the world's largest advertising agency networks take on Creative Salon's questions around the biggest industry trend of the moment, the impact of AI. Stay up to date with Cannes Lions via the dedicated online section.