Stephan Pretorius brokers deals and launches AI tools that are transforming how WPP operates

In 2018, Stephan Pretorius became WPP’s chief technology officer. “At the time,” he said, “I started speaking about how to transform WPP into a platform business, and what it means to build data flywheels and inject AI into the processes. Fundamentally, the idea is to combine our methodologies, our data and how we work into one platform, so we can actually deliver better for clients.” Fast forward to 2023, when Pretorius launched WPP’s AI operating system, WPP Open, used by clients such as Coca-Cola, Nestlé and Ford. Pretorius had to create different workstations for each offering with their own sets of capabilities. This includes a creative studio, production studio, media studio, experience studio, commerce studio and PR studio. The generative AI studio within the creative studio is being used by 28,000 WPP employees who have generated more than 1.5 million text prompts and more than 1.6 million image prompts. Pretorius also spearheaded a deal with tech company Nvidia to create a virtual production pipeline. The pipeline combines the 3D rendering of product images within Nvidia’s Omniverse platform to create large volumes of high-quality content currently being used by Ford and in the pilot phase for Coke and L’Oréal. See Ad Age’s Tech Power List honoring marketing leaders What is the biggest technological challenge facing your sector of advertising and technology, and why? I don’t think it’s a technological challenge. The biggest challenge facing our sector is that people are stuck in legacy ways of thinking about marketing channels and marketing methodologies. Technology can achieve anything if we have more imagination and are more open-minded about what is important for brands and businesses to grow. But if I had to answer “What is the biggest technological problem?” I’d say it’s the lack of specialized skills in marketing and agency teams. How are you preparing to overcome this challenge? By investing aggressively in specialized talent. We’ve done it to a large degree. We forked up a lot of money to buy Satalia, which is like our deep mind. It’s a research-grade AI lab. We did that two and a half years ago. There are a number of additional acquisitions we’re looking at right now to supplement that skill base even further. If you want to differentiate, you need very specialized research-grade AI specialists; those people are highly in demand. If they build businesses, those businesses are very expensive and they get paid a lot by companies like Google and Microsoft and video game companies. What’s your favorite blog, TikTok account, podcast or any must-follows in your media diet? I read everything from The Information. It’s a really good, general-purpose technology insider kind of track. I have a curated list of AI experts that I follow on X that I’ve built up over the years. It’s my prize list because it’s all the people I respect. The tech community is very generous with ideas and their knowledge. I think people read too few books; I think we all need to read more books. I’ve got a broad view about AI—that it’s a complete renaissance in human intelligence. It’s the first technology that’s about intelligence, it’s a technology about how we formulate ideas, how we think, how we come up with wisdom and new concepts, and I think it’s got the potential to make us all smarter. But I think that also puts a burden on us all to start learning more aggressively again. The biggest thing I would say to people is to read more books. I’m obsessed at the moment with the writer Benjamin Labatut. He’s written two books I read recently. I loved “The Maniac,” about mid-century mathematicians John von Neumann and Einstein and people like that. The second is “When We Cease to Understand the World,” about physicists and mathematicians who’ve pushed the edge of current knowledge—and what that process has been like, but also the toll it’s taken on their personal lives and their health and all kinds of things. Who is your technological hero, alive or from the past, who inspired you the most? I’m generally not someone who has heroes. I respect a lot of people and I’m excited by people’s ideas. If I had to say anyone, I’d probably say Tim Berners-Lee and Vint Cerf. Those early internet pioneers had a very pure view of how network computer systems can not only disseminate information and help us communicate better, but also improve humanity by making information freer and level the playing field by making access to information more universally possible. See Ad Age’s Tech Power List honoring marketing leaders

Stephan Pretorius brokers deals and launches AI tools that are transforming how WPP operates

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