Home » Omnicom CEO John Wren: “We’re Responding With AI As If Our Hair Were On Fire”

19 July, 2023

Omnicom CEO John Wren: “We’re Responding With AI As If Our Hair Were On Fire”

New York-based holding company Omnicom has reported organic revenue growing 3.4 per cent to $US3.61 billion for the June quarter and used the announcement to confirm its commitment to all things AI where it declared it wanted to be “leaders in this area”.

Omnicom is the first of the holding companies to report its Q2s and said the 4.3 per cent year-to-date growth put the company on track with full-year expectation of between three and five per cent. You can read all the numbers HERE.

Commenting in the numbers, John Wren, chairman and CEO of Omnicom, said: “Organic revenue grew 3.4 per cent in the second quarter and 4.3 per cent year-to-date, placing us comfortably within our expected range and driving strong growth in earnings per share.

“While the balance of the year will continue to see economic uncertainty, we are entering a dynamic and exciting new era for our company. Omnicom has secured leading positions in generative AI technologies and partnerships to deliver on our promise to achieve the best outcomes for our clients and increase the operational efficiency of our company,” he said.

However, it was Wren’s comments around AI that caught much of the attention.

“We’re responding with AI as if our hair were on fire,” said Wren. “We want to be leaders in this area.”

His comments mirror WPP boss Mark Read saying the exact same thing a couple of weeks ago.

Wren said “generative AI will have a profound effect on Omnicom”, including “massive opportunities to improve productivity of our people and produce better work for clients.”

Wren added: “AI can never replace the inspiration and genius that comes from our people and creativity.

“These technological advances will simply make it faster and easier for them to develop and deploy creative ideas,” he added. “[People are] always going to be what differentiates companies like ours from everyone else. It won’t reduce the importance of creativity to the IP of Omnicom.”

Wren said he saw generative AI as a driver of organic growth as it had the potential to make people more efficient at their jobs while making it easier to prove to clients the ROI on every dollar they spend.

“I believe that will lead to increased organic growth over the near and long term,” he said.

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