In an hour long video presentation, Publicis execs laid down the AI gauntlet to its competitors as Madison Avenue reckons with how AI technology will transform — and challenge — the ad business. It bought first-party data platform Epsilon in a $4.4 billion 2019 acquisition. "We're in such a fantastic position to leverage AI better than our competition," said Carla Serrano, Publicis Groupe global chief strategy officer in an interview. "There's no such thing as AI without great data and we have connected, proprietary data, and we're a platform company," she added. Publicis said it plans to invest 100 million euros, around $109 million, in building the AI platform in 2024.

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Persons: Groupe, execs, Publicis, CoreAI, Sapient, Carla Serrano, Serrano, Michael Farmer Organizations: Business, Madison, reckons, Microsoft, Labs, Epsilon, WPP, Havas, Publicis Groupe, Google, Tech