WPP has appointed Elav Horwitz as its first chief innovation officer, in a bid to solidify its leadership in applied AI and deliver technology-driven solutions for clients.
In this new position, Horwitz will be responsible for connecting WPP’s partners with the company’s creative and strategic talent. Her remit will focus on fostering a culture of collaboration and agile innovation to drive applied AI and client transformation, and to redefine how clients engage with commerce, create compelling content and shape culture.
In her new role, Horwitz will continue to report to WPP chief technology officer Stephan Pretorius. A leading voice for responsible technology and innovation, Horwitz also serves as an advisor to influential groups like the Spotify and Meta Creative Councils, and she’s a founding member of the leadership community Chief.
Horwitz’s appointment as chief innovation officer underscores WPP’s continued investment in technology and data and follows a series of recent hires to bolster WPP’s innovation capabilities, including Daniel Barak as WPP’s first global creative and innovation lead, Sarah Salter as VP of global partnerships and AI innovation and Mathieu Albrand as director of AI strategy and innovation.
The expanded team will continue to work closely with Horwitz and Stephan to drive WPP’s innovation agenda forward.
“Innovation is at the heart of everything we do at WPP, and Horwitz’s promotion to chief innovation officer together with the world-class team she is assembling underscores our commitment to
actively shape the future of our industry,” said Stephan Pretorius, chief technology officer of WPP.
“She will be instrumental in ensuring our company remains at the centre of technology-driven innovation, translating the power of applied AI into concrete solutions that drive material business impact for our clients.”
“Never before has the need for innovation and agility been more critical than in our AI era,” explained Horwitz following her appointment. “We must show our teams, clients and the entire industry what’s possible by uniting the best talents, capabilities, partners and a forward-thinking mindset, enabling us to deliver results in a matter of hours and make the future both tangible and democratised.”
“As we rewrite the marketing playbook for the AI era, we’re thrilled to have Horwitz lead our innovation agenda,” said Cindy Rose, CEO of WPP. “This appointment underscores our investment to
embed innovation into the core of everything we do, ensuring our clients benefit from the most advanced and effective solutions.”
With Horwitz’s new remit, WPP’s innovation team will focus on three interconnected pillars to deliver transformative client outcomes:
Innovative talent: building on WPP’s existing talent pool, including its network of over 50 emerging creative technologists from its Creative Tech Apprenticeship programme, Horwitz’s team will leverage this creative task force to deploy rapid prototyping, experimentation and AI-powered production for brands, connecting Gen Z innovators directly with clients.
This follows the announcement that WPP’s Creative Tech Apprenticeship programme is expanding, with Google joining as the primary curriculum partner. Participants learn from a world-leading curriculum over the span of nine weeks, covering topics such as creative coding, gen AI and robotics, to solve real-world challenges for clients.
Cutting-edge technology models: WPP will deepen client access to advanced AI models and technologies through its strategic partnerships with industry leaders such as Adobe, Amazon, Google, IBM, Meta, Microsoft, Roblox, Spotify, Stability AI, TikTok, Universal Music Group, Vercel and more.
In addition to the established sector players, WPP will collaborate with emerging start-ups at the forefront of AI innovation. Horwitz will continue leading the framework for identifying, testing and integrating these partner models across WPP. With early access to partner models, WPP is able to create campaign-ready assets for clients in days, achieving up to 70 per cent efficiency gains.
Innovation in motion: Horwitz’s team will cultivate a dynamic culture of ‘innovation in motion’ across WPP, championing co-creation in WPP Open and WPP Open Pro with partners, reimagining internal workflows and embedding AI throughout the creative, production and media lifecycle. As a core component of this, WPP will pilot its AI Client Council, where key clients are invited to discuss and experiment with emerging solutions before scaling them across the broader client portfolio, empowering brands to explore and adopt transformative technologies.
This appointment closely follows the unveiling of WPP Open Pro, the new edition of WPP’s AI marketing platform, WPP Open, designed to put WPP’s AI capabilities in the hands of clients and empower brands of all sizes to plan, create and publish campaigns independently.
