Microsoft and Publicis Groupe announce the expansion of their strategic partnership to build a full-stack marketing solution that unifies legacy systems, AI agents and identity-based data to accelerate marketing outcomes in the era of agentic AI. This follows the co-creation of Marcel ten years ago.
Through the partnership, Microsoft and Publicis will leverage expertise to embed agentic AI across the entire flow of work. This allows marketers to focus on strategy, creativity and the pursuit of original ideas.
Arthur Sadoun, CEO, Publicis Groupe said, “Ten years ago with Microsoft we co-created Marcel, marketing’s first AI platform. Now we’re partnering again to shape the industry, this time as our clients confront the dynamics of the agentic era. Together, we are combining Microsoft’s unmatched technology and AI capabilities with Publicis Sapient’s transformation expertise on top of Epsilon’s industry-leading identity data to deliver agentic solutions that are truly game-changing for clients.
“Both our companies believe that the future of AI requires agents in service of people and humanity, and with this partnership we are creating a unique opportunity for our clients to lead against this ambition,” Sadoun said.
The companies will deliver modern cloud foundations for AI through Publicis Sapient’s Slingshot framework, which will leverage Microsoft’s cloud to enable organizations to migrate legacy systems to Microsoft Azure.
Sapient AI solutions will integrate Microsoft Copilot Studio, Microsoft Agent 365 and Microsoft IQ, enabling customers to embed AI into core business processes. Sapient’s Bodhi platform will allow organizations to deploy AI agents across operations, commerce, marketing and customer engagement.
The partnership is anchored in Epsilon, Publicis’ IP intelligence layer. AI agents built on Microsoft Fabric and powered by Epsilon will be able to reason and act on proprietary data. For example, an AI agent can identify customer segments, generate content, and optimize spend in real time within set guardrails.
Judson Althoff, CEO of Microsoft’s commercial business said, “This partnership reflects our belief that AI must do more to serve humanity by empowering creativity and innovation. By bringing Microsoft’s cloud and AI capabilities together with Publicis Groupe Solutions built on Azure, we are giving creatives and makers the freedom to spend less time on repetitive execution and more time shaping ideas, building brands and driving meaningful growth for our customers.”
Publicis is putting Microsoft 365 Copilot in the hands of all 114,000+ employees worldwide and has selected Microsoft Azure as a preferred cloud provider. Additionally, Publicis will become Microsoft’s global media agency of record to link audiences, signals and performance data.
