Publicis Groupe has reported another strong set of financial results for Q4 and 2025, driven by artificial intelligence (AI) -powered creative and media-powered work.
As AI platforms, including Google’s Gemini and OpenAI, prepare to introduce ad products, Publicis chief executive (CEO) Arthur Sadoun is bullish that the legacy holdco is evolving quickly enough to stop client dollars from straying.
The numbers
5.9% – organic growth in Q4
$8 billion – in new business last year. Wins included Coca-Cola North America’s media account, Mars’ media account, and Nespresso’s global creative brief.
$17.18 billion – in net revenue in 2025. Up 5.6% on 2024, and up 20% since 2022.
Watercooler talk
Even as the advertising market contracts following Omnicom’s acquisition of IPG, Publicis’ winning streak shows no signs of abating.
Over the last 12 months, client retention sat at 98% across its top 100 roster.
Having invested over $17 billion in data and tech over the last decade, including its $6 billion 2019 purchase of Epsilon, the legacy advertising group is on the front foot as it heads into a 2026 AI arms race.
Both OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini are gearing up to launch ad products, with the former asking select advertisers to commit at least $200,000 to tests targeting some of its 800 million users, potentially siphoning dollars from established advertising players.
However, Sadoun told ADWEEK he sees Publicis as the “connective tissue” in the new advertising ecosystem.
Following acquisitions including Epsilon and Lotame, 73% of Publicis’ operating model is now “AI-powered,” said Sadoun. In September, the ad group revealed that 80% of revenues from its media arm, which accounts for 60% of the company’s total earnings, are now supported by its AI tools.
“We’re starting to see tangible results from clients that demonstrate AI can deliver business outcomes if it’s used properly; not as a new shiny toy, but something that is deeply entrenched in their business models,” he said.
While one of its biggest rivals, WPP, recently inked a deal with Gemini, Sadoun ruled out the possibility of Publicis wedding itself to a single partner in the space, even as OpenAI’s ad launch looms.
“We are not an AI platform, and we shouldn’t compete with those investing trillions into data and new technology. We should be the [business] that can help our clients connect the entire ecosystem: across data, technology, the right AI, and the right people,” he said.
