Ten years after co-creating Marcel, an innovative AI platform, Microsoft and Publicis Groupe announce the expansion of their strategic partnership to build a full-stack marketing solution that unifies legacy systems, AI agents and identity-based data to accelerate marketing outcomes in the era of agentic AI.
At a time when companies are moving faster than ever to adapt as customer behavior shifts and increasingly need to connect their investments directly to revenue and outcomes, AI fundamentally changes the equation.Through the partnership, Microsoft and Publicis will leverage each other’s expertise to embed agentic AI across the entire flow of work so marketers can focus on what they do best: strategy, creativity and the pursuit of original ideas.
“Ten years ago with Microsoft we co-created Marcel, marketing’s first AI platform,” said Arthur Sadoun, CEO, Publicis Groupe. “Now we’re partnering again to shape the industry, this time as our clients confront the dynamics of the agentic era. Together, we are combining Microsoft’s unmatched technology and AI capabilities with Publicis Sapient’s transformation expertise on top of Epsilon’s industry-leading identity data to deliver agentic solutions that are truly game-changing for clients. Both our companies believe that the future of AI requires agents in service of people and humanity, and with this partnership we are creating a unique opportunity for our clients to lead against this ambition.”
In a market crowded with fragmented AI point solutions, most companies need but rarely achieve connected transformation. To address the needs of marketers today, the companies will deliver:
- Modern cloud foundations for AI: Publicis Sapient’s Slingshot framework will leverage Microsoft’s cloud, enabling organizations to migrate legacy systems to Microsoft Azure to create modern, cloud-native foundations for AI adoption.
- AI agent deployment: Sapient AI solutions will integrate Microsoft Copilot Studio, Microsoft Agent 365 and Microsoft IQ, enabling customers to embed AI directly into core business processes. Sapient’s Bodhi platform will then allow organizations to deploy and scale secure, enterprise-grade AI agents across operations, commerce, marketing and customer engagement, connecting data, workflows and decision-making to drive tangible business impact.
- Identity-based data model: Unlike AI built on public data or siloed models, this partnership is anchored in Epsilon, Publicis’ IP intelligence layer. Epsilon connects customers and prospects to drive measurable outcomes by fusing identity, media, marketing and customer intelligence. AI agents built on Microsoft Fabric and powered by Epsilon will be able to reason, decide and act on trusted, real-world and proprietary data, to deliver impact that extends beyond model performance to sustained business value. For example, an AI agent can autonomously identify high‑value customer segments, generate and personalize content, deploy campaigns across channels, and continuously optimize spend in real time — within guardrails set by marketing leaders.
“This partnership reflects our belief that AI must do more to serve humanity by empowering creativity and innovation,” said Judson Althoff, CEO of Microsoft’s commercial business. “By bringing Microsoft’s cloud and AI capabilities together with Publicis Groupe Solutions built on Azure, we are giving creatives and makers the freedom to spend less time on repetitive execution and more time shaping ideas, building brands and driving meaningful growth for our customers.”
As part of this partnership, Publicis is putting Microsoft 365 Copilot in the hands of all 114,000+ employees worldwide. They have also selected Microsoft Azure as a preferred cloud provider. By working with Microsoft, which offers the most scalable and secure cloud and AI platform in the industry, Publicis is strengthening its ability to deliver personalization at scale and expanding Marcel’s role from pioneering AI in marketing to powering the next generation of enterprisewide AI.
Additionally, Publicis will become Microsoft’s global media agency of record. Through focused co-innovation, built with Microsoft Azure, the companies will better link audiences, signals and performance data to maximize business outcomes.
