• by Laurie Sullivan , 4 hours ago

Microsoft and Publicis Groupe have expanded their partnership to build a full-stack marketing platform that integrates legacy software systems, AI agents and identity-based data.

The plan, announced by the companies on Wednesday, aims to accelerate marketing outcomes as more companies move to agentic AI and and as changes shape consumers' behavior.

“Ten years ago with Microsoft we co-created Marcel, marketing’s first AI platform,” stated Arthur Sadoun, CEO of Publicis Groupe. “Now we’re partnering again to shape the industry, this time as our clients confront the dynamics of the agentic era."

Marcel was designed to connect the agency's employees. Publicis Groupe defined the architecture and design, while Microsoft built the platform using Microsoft Azure AI and Office 365.

Microsoft and Publicis will use each other’s expertise to integrate agentic AI across the entire flow of work so marketers can focus on strategy, creative and original ideas, rather than writing code and infrastructure.

The companies plan to combine Microsoft’s technology and AI capabilities with Publicis Sapient’s expertise and integrate that on top of Epsilon’s identity data to deliver agentic solutions.

Several industry executives working to improve the infrastructure of agentic AI have said they believe companies will need to rewrite the internet, and this is is one example. 

Publicis Sapient’s Slingshot framework will use Microsoft’s cloud, enabling organizations to migrate legacy systems to Microsoft Azure to create modern, cloud-native foundations for AI adoption.

Sapient AI will integrate Microsoft Copilot Studio, Microsoft Agent 365 and Microsoft IQ, enabling customers to embed AI into core business processes.

Its Bodhi platform will enable organizations to deploy AI agents for business operations, commerce, marketing, and customer engagement, integrating data and workflows to achieve measurable results.

There is also an identity-based data model through Epsilon, Publicis’ IP intelligence layer.

As part of this partnership, more than 114,000 Publicis employees worldwide will use Publicis Microsoft 365 Copilot, and Microsoft Azure becomes the preferred cloud provider.