Adverts at the push of a button

WPP, one of the world’s largest advertising groups, has teamed up with chipmaker Nvidia to use generative artificial intelligence in the production of advertising at scale.

The new technology platform, being announced by Nvidia boss Jensen Huang in Taiwan, will allow WPP to use AI to create in minutes campaigns that would have previously taken weeks.

The platform combines 3D imaging software that can be used to produce a fully accurate photorealistic image that can then be taken into a video or 2D advertising generated by the AI engine.

In the case of a car, this could be placed in a desert, or rainy street, with the car adapting to its surroundings — glistening wet or reflecting glare — in processes that would have taken days using a traditional green screen or real-life filming.

The speed of production means that advertising campaigns can be rapidly adapted for different markets or countries.

WPP chief technology officer Stephan Pretorius said clients were beginning to ask to use generative AI. “We are able to use generative AI to now personalise and . . . customise [advertising] to every environment in the world: you can create 10,000 versions within a couple of minutes.”

Many in the advertising industry are concerned AI will replace their jobs given its ability to replicate familiar creative content. Advertising agencies are already using AI in media planning and buying.

WPP’s chief executive Mark Read said: “It’s much easier to identify the jobs that AI will disrupt than it is to identify the jobs that AI will create”.

“We’ve applied AI a lot to our media business, but very little to the creative parts of our business.”

Read, who said the technology would be “fundamental” to WPP’s business, added that “clients are seeing ways of rapidly reducing the cost of production, to match the demands of new channels”.

The technology links up with Getty Images to ensure copyright is also protected, addressing a big concern over the use of AI given the risk that it can use images unlawfully.

WPP has been working on trials of this technology with Nvidia for several years. Rev Lebaredian, vicepresident of Omniverse and simulation technology at Nvidia, whose stock price rocketed last week on the back of its AI technology, told the Financial Times the time had come to use generative AI in advertising. “Everybody has realised now how transformative AI will be — you’re seeing that in our stock price now. WPP understood this early on.”

Nvidia’s Huang said: “The world’s industries, including the US$700 billion ($1.1 trillion) digital advertising industry, are racing to realise the benefits of AI,” adding WPP could make “product experiences and compelling content at a level of realism and scale never possible before”.