IPG has reported a dip in revenue in 2023, as it announced its full year results. In an earnings call to investors CEO Philippe Krakowsky said that a pullback in spending by tech and telecoms clients had impacted the firm.
It saw a dip in revenue of 0.1%, making £8.6 billion ($10.9 billion) in revenue, and returning £278 million ($350.2 million) to shareholders.
Krakowsky said that IPG will invest £63 million ($80 million) in AI, including in new products, partnerships and training.
“We factored in the expectation that tech and telco will continue to pressure growth, less so than last year”.
He said: “Nothing has changed and we’re going to re-engineer our business. AI will actually play a part in that as well”
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He added that IPG’s AI investments would span tech, software development and training.
“On the creative side of the business things have become more project- driven than a traditional model around AOR. There’s still significant value in creativity but you want to focus on where you’ve got strong players in that space”.
“In a fragmented media echo system creative ideas matter a lot. If you’ve got great content and it’s part of a bigger system, and then you’ve got smart delivery, that works. That works pretty well”.
It comes as WPP said it would invest £250 million into AI this year and Publicis Groupe pledged £256 million into AI over the next three years.
