Dive Brief:

• Publicis Groupe and Adobe today (March 18) expanded their global strategic partnership and will directly integrate Adobe’s generative artificial intelligence (AI) into the holding company’s CoreAI platform, Marketing Dive can exclusively share. 
• The companies will build services that combine Adobe Firefly Services, a collection of creative and generative APIs and services for enterprises, with Publicis’ AI-powered intelligent system that unifies its propriety data.
• The deal will allow Publicis clients to create personalized content at scale using its identity solutions and looks to improve workflows, boost efficiency and drive creativity. The announcement was timed to the Adobe Summit conference in Las Vegas.

Dive Insight:

Publicis Groupe continues its streak of potentially transformative news, expanding a decade-plus relationship with Adobe to further advance its generative AI ambitions. The agency holding company last year announced plans to invest 300 million euros (about $325 million) over three years into the technology, which underpins its in-house CoreAI platform.

“The combination of CoreAI and Adobe Firefly takes us even further in our mission to shape the future of personalized, data- driven content at scale. Together, we are setting a new standard for how brands engage with their audiences, driving both creativity and measurable business outcomes,” Publicis CEO Arthur Sadoun said in a statement.

Publicis’ agencies and production studios will use commercially safe models for image, vector and video creation, boosting speed and giving clients more creative control over the process. Beyond the integration of CoreAI and Adobe Firefly Services, the deal allows the generative AI tools to be leveraged alongside Adobe Experience Cloud and Adobe Experience Platform for joint clients of both companies. 

Publicis has made several moves as part of its pledge around generative AI. Most notably, the company earlier this month acquired identity solutions firm Lotame to boost its data-driven marketing offering Epsilon — giving the company’s generative AI even more data on which to train. Previously, its digital consulting agency Publicis Sapient expanded its partnership with Google Cloud and created a dedicated business unit to help clients plan, deploy and manage the technology. 

Adobe continues to partner with agencies and brands to deploy its generative AI technology. The Estée Lauder Companies last week announced plans to integrate Adobe Firefly Services into its existing Adobe Creative Cloud workflows to increase efficiency and accelerate campaign execution. Previous deals have seen Adobe tie-up with WPP, IPG, Dentsu and Accenture around generative AI.

Publicis’ streak of wins includes recently winning the North American media and data business of The Coca-Cola Company — an early mover in the generative AI space – from competitor WPP. The group saw 6.3% organic growth in Q4 2024 and 5.8% organic growth in the full year.