The Omnicom saga continued on its merry way when it issued its fourth quarter and full-year results last Wednesday. Fuelling my never-ending rant about the impending perils of AI, was when CEO, John Wren, was pressed about the impact of AI on jobs, he acknowledged that the technology would help cut some positions but that the bigger impact is enabling employees to be more productive. I then proceeded to choke on my breakfast beer when I read that company chief technology officer Paolo Yuvienco (below) posited that creative teams that used to present three concepts to a client can now present 25 to 50 concepts to that client in the same amount of time.
“It’s about the ability to do more with a higher degree of confidence,” he said. No, you wanker, I thought, that would demonstrate to its clients that the agency is incapable of making a commitment and recommendation of its work and is prepared to throw multiple buckets of shit at the wall ‘till one of them sticks. Perhaps company chief technology officer Paolo Yuvienco should consider replacing himself with fifty AI Bots!
