By Julia Kollewe,Mark Sweney
Publication Date: 2026-02-26 07:58:00
Struggling advertising group WPP has announced a radical restructuring to counter the threat of the AI revolution, including merging its advertising agencies and cutting jobs.
Aiming to become “a simpler, more cost-effective, AI-powered business,” the London-based company laid out plans to achieve annual savings of £500 million by 2028, equating to a cost of £400 million over two years.
A significant portion of the cost reductions are likely to come from job cuts. The company did not say how many jobs would be cut.
Since its founding in the mid-1980s, WPP has seen its biggest job losses of 7,200 as a result of the global advertising recession in 2009 and 7,000 in 2020 due to the impact of the Covid pandemic.
A large portion of the savings will be reinvested in “high-growth” areas, it said on Thursday.
The troubled company will create a standalone division to work with customers on AI transformation as it restructures the group into four regional business units: North America; Latin America; Europe,…
