February 2024, the Groupe’s Chairman, together with the Management Board+, gave a presentation to all employees on developments related to the arrival of generative artificial intelligence (AI) in the Groupe’s business lines. The outlines of the corporate deployment project around CoreAI and the move towards an “Intelligent System” (.is) were laid out. The use of machine learning (automated deep learning) has already been integrated into many activities for several years, in creative but also at Epsilon and Publicis Sapient. The transformation brought about by generative AI must be based on clear ethical rules, particularly in terms of transparency, fairness, responsibility, confidentiality and security.
The Groupe has set up operational governance for artificial intelligence (AI), in view of its strategic needs in its various business lines, and the interest expressed by clients. It is necessary to understand their use in a holistic way, integrating transparency in particular on learning sources and data collection mechanisms. Internal uses of AI- generated content, whether text, images, sound or video, must comply with these principles. Employees have been trained in and have received the first key policies related to AI, including Generative AI Responsible Use Guidelines and Generative AI Legal Guidelines, updated regularly. They have access to several tools on Marcel to test them in an internal and protected environment, to learn how to use them effectively and collaborate on projects. Mandatory training for all employees, “Responsible Use of AI,” was implemented in January 2025. All corporate functions – legal, HR, IT, CSR, etc. – are also committed to contributing to this transformation.
With regard to children and adolescents: the Groupe defends and promotes the rules set out in the ICC (International Chamber of Commerce) Marketing & Advertising to Children guide on brands’ and agencies’ specific responsibilities with regard to children and adolescents, whether in terms of product categories to be promoted or communication techniques used. This Code provides a framework for communication aimed at children (under 12 years old) and adolescents (between 13 and 18 years old).
Due to the general aging of the population in many countries, the elderly are among the broadest vulnerable groups, particularly in the case of digital campaigns. It is imperative to always remain transparent about the sender of the message and to use clear and unambiguous language, so as not to mislead.[SBM-3-10 (a) iv, S4-2-21]
Digital accessibility or e-accessibility: for over ten years, teams of digital accessibility experts have been involved in numerous projects, notably within Publicis Sapient. An Accessibility Center of Excellence built around the dedicated team, with experts in many cities, makes it possible to intervene well upstream of projects for clients. Digital platforms designed for clients must meet the universal criteria issued by the W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) in order to allow equal access to content, including for people with disabilities (visually impaired, blind, deaf, hearing- impaired, other types of physical difficulties, etc.) or with access difficulties. The key issue is the upstream training of the teams that conceive, design and develop these projects in order to simplify the indexing of pages, to facilitate the reading of all the elements (video, images, texts, links, navigation, etc.) and lastly, to facilitate technical maintenance or content changes. In addition to compliance issues, these best practices also make the user experience simpler and more enjoyable. These expert teams may also be called upon for certification issues, as several employees are themselves duly qualified to do so.
In France, creative agencies such as Publicis Conseil, Leo Burnett and Saatchi & Saatchi have chosen to subtitle all films and videos for all media with Prodigious. This approach is an extension of the French Advertising initiative (AACC) to promote the universal subtitling of advertising films, www.soustitronsnospublicites.aacc.fr. This voluntary approach is applied by other teams around the world, particularly in Europe.
This program was created by France in 2019, allowing employees to be trained with a holistic logic to cover the complexity of integrating sustainability into the business lines. Intended for agency employees and client teams, it consists of several elements:
