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Havas, one of the world’s largest marketing consultancies, has unveiled a €400 million internal program designed to boost its technology capabilities.

Havas CEO Yannick Bolloré (above) briefed journalists on the plan in a press conference held this week. According to the firm, the funds allocated to the project will go to “data, tech and AI.” The latter area will likely be a particularly central focus of the initiative.

Advertising agencies are rolling out GenAI tools en mass in a push for better employee productivity. The technology is used for everything from writing copy to generating ads’ promo images. Marketing agencies are also consuming AI as part of traditional software tools, such as the analytics applications they use to measure the reach of their ad campaigns. Many such applications have been updated with new AI functionality in recent years.

Havas’ machine learning push will focus on an internal software solution it calls Converge. According to the firm, the software is currently used by its employees to speed up audience planning. This is the process of stitching together data points about consumer interests from different systems to figure out which buyers would be receptive to a new ad campaign. Havas plans to extend Converge’s capabilities to additional tasks as part of its newly unveiled tech investment roadmap.

“Our new Converged strategy will build even more bridges between creativity, media, production, and technology than ever before,” Havas’ Bolloré stated. 

A second goal of the program is to improve client experience. To that end, Havas will expand its senior leadership team with a new Global Chief Client Officer. At big companies, the executive who holds this position is typically tasked with analyzing the performance of sales teams, marketers and other client-facing groups to find ways of making them more productive. The job title often also encompasses other responsibilities, such as identifying methods of boosting client retention.

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