French advertising and PR giant Publicis Groupe wants to transform itself from a holding company to an 80,000-person enterprise platform. An AI-powered innovation called Marcel will help it do so.
Publicis Groupe wants to “reinvent” the way it works – both for itself, and its clients. And to do so, it has unveiled Marcel, an AI-powered platform to connect its 80,000 employees across the globe. The company hopes that the platform, named after Publicis Groupe founder Marcel Bleustein-Blanchet, will help it “accelerate transforming the organization from a holding company to a platform, creating the first truly borderless, frictionless enterprise workforce,” ushering in “a new era of creativity and innovation.”
Announced last year in June, Marcel’s development was tied to Publicis’ one-year industry event hiatus, as the company was determined to reinvent the industry it sees as struggling to evolve for over 40 years. As Arthur Sadoun, the company’s Chairman & CEO explained: “Marcel is the power of all of us, working as one, and we have already begun to prove that.”
So, what is it all about?
Marcel is an enterprise platform that is built on Microsoft AI and Knowledge Graph technologies to help unlock the value of Publicis’ vast amounts of data and help provide a “fluid, intuitive, intelligent, and rich experience” for all 80,000 employees. It was built to connect people, skills, passions, projects, creativity, ideas, and much more, on a massive scale to gain higher employee engagement and ultimately, better results for clients.
Marcel was designed to be “as user-friendly as any consumer app” and employees can use it via voice or text input. Its mobile application will be available on iOS and Android. For the time being, it will be tested by 1,000 people who will provide feedback to refine it. The goal is to reach 90% of its employees by 2020, with an initial roll-out planned in early 2019.
Marcel is primarily a Publicis creation. Its technology and consulting arm Publicis.Sapient developed its user design and experience. Publicis Communications’ BBH (Bartle Bogle Hegarty) created its brand identity. As an undertaking, it brought together “the expertise and inputs from a diverse team of more than 100 people across the company including Publicis.Sapient, Publicis Communications, Publicis Media, Re:Sources, IT, legal, data privacy, security, procurement, and human resources.”
However, it was completed via a partnership with Microsoft and its AI expertise. Publicis Groupe also partnered with the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity “to access The Work, a unique digital platform that showcases over 200,000 pieces of award-winning creative work from 2001-2018.”
Finally, you will be pleased to know that Marcel complies with privacy requirements like GDPR as the data its employees provide are fully opt-in.
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