Publicis Groupe completes LiveRamp acquisition, launches AI growth engine

Publicis Groupe has completed its acquisition of data collaboration platform LiveRamp, bringing the company into its wider data and technology ecosystem as it looks to deepen its AI capabilities for clients.

With the acquisition closed, Publicis is launching what it calls an "AI growth engine", combining LiveRamp's data collaboration technology with Epsilon's identity capabilities. The offering is designed to allow brands to enrich and activate their first-party data, personalise content, measure business outcomes and generate proprietary intelligence for AI agents.

According to Publicis, the system will operate within clients' own technology environments, allowing them to retain ownership and control over their data and AI intellectual property.

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The offering will also connect with the Groupe's wider capabilities, including Publicis Sapient for technology infrastructure, Marcel's agentic activation layer, as well as its creative, media, influencer and commerce businesses.

Through the integration, clients will be able to combine their first-party data with LiveRamp's RampID and Epsilon's identity capabilities, while activating it across LiveRamp's ecosystem of 25,000 publishers and 500 technology and data partners. This includes retail media networks, walled gardens and large language model (LLM) integrations, as well as Publicis' media network.

Publicis is also bringing LiveRamp's data clean room and zero-copy capabilities into the offering. These are intended to allow brands to collaborate with retailers, streaming platforms and other partners without moving or duplicating underlying datasets, while generating new insights that can feed their own AI models.

The Groupe said the model is built around keeping client data within their own environments, allowing clients to retain ownership of proprietary AI and intelligence assets while avoiding lock-in to a particular technology platform or partner.

The move comes as Publicis looks to position itself for a growing market around agentic business transformation, with AI agents increasingly being used to automate and support functions across marketing and the wider enterprise.

"Clients are at a point in their transformation journey where they need to simultaneously run and reset, to deliver growth today while fundamentally rebuilding for the AI agents of tomorrow," said Arthur Sadoun, chairman and CEO of Publicis Groupe.

He added that brands are currently faced with a choice between handing data to large technology platforms in exchange for scale or investing in costly custom technology infrastructure.

"Our answer is the industry's first AI growth engine, combining the speed, simplicity and instant results of plug and play, with full ownership and control, so clients can drive business impact without giving up autonomy over their data, their technology, or their future," Sadoun said.

Sadoun added that Publicis intends to preserve LiveRamp's identity, culture and neutrality following the acquisition, while bringing its expertise together with the Groupe's broader capabilities.

"Together, we will give our clients the AI engine they need to deliver instant business results, and power their agentic frameworks today and for the future," he said.

Meanwhile, Scott Howe, CEO of LiveRamp, said joining Publicis would give clients a foundation to scale agentic marketing while maintaining control over their data.

"For years, LiveRamp has defined how the industry responsibly connects and collaborates with data. Joining Publicis allows us to give clients a foundation to scale agentic marketing with complete data ownership and control," said Howe.

The LiveRamp acquisition also follows a series of deals by Publicis as it continues to expand its capabilities beyond traditional advertising, spanning areas including sports, culture, influencer marketing and social.

In April this year, Publicis agreed to acquire global sports and culture-first agency 160over90, a division of WME Group with more than 670 employees across the US, UK, EMEA and APAC. The deal was aimed at combining technology, data and scale to help brands connect with audiences through sport and culture.

The move followed Publicis' agreement in October last year to acquire HEPMIL Media Group, the parent company of SGAG and an influencer, content and social agency in Southeast Asia. The deal brought HEPMIL's digital community and creator capabilities together with Publicis' data assets, including Lotame and Epsilon's ID graph, which covers more than 800 million consumer profiles in the region.

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