WPP's AI Overhaul: Major Cuts, New Division, Regional Units

0:00Here's more news from across the UK for February 26th, brought to you by NordVPN, fast, reliable, online privacy. Links in the episode description, WPP, the London-based advertising giant, just unveiled a major overhaul to tackle the rise of artificial intelligence. The plan merges its key ad agencies and includes widespread job cuts to create a leaner operation. They're targeting 500 million pounds in yearly savings by 2028, though it'll cost 400 million pounds over the next two years. A big part of those savings will fund high-growth areas, including a new standalone division, focused on helping clients with AI changes. The company is also splitting into four regional units, North America, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, plus Asia-Pacific. Agencies like Ogilvy, VML, and AKQA will combine under one creative banner. Leaders at WPP blame, past struggles on too much internal complexity and poor execution, but they say fixes are underway.

1:05The firm reported a 3.6% drop in revenue to 13.6 billion pounds for 2025, with profits before taxed down. 26% to 1.1 billion pounds, staff costs alone, running nearly 8 billion pounds a year. This comes amid tough competition, like U.S. rival Amicom boosting its savings goal to 1.5 billion dollars after a big takeover. WPP's market value has shrunk to 3 billion pounds from 25 billion pounds just nine years ago, and it recently dropped out of the FTSE-1, 100 after losing its spot as the World's top ad group. Industry-wide UK ad agency saw their largest staff exodus last year, especially among younger workers, as AI tools push more cuts across the board. WPP hopes this reset positions it strongly for what's next.