Publicis Transforms Marcel into a Client Platform and Appoints Its First CEO

French group Publicis has appointed a new leadership team for its AI platform Marcel, as it transforms into an agentic system serving both clients and employees. Scott Hagedorn, the group's Chief Solutions Architect, has become the first CEO of Marcel, while Sam Levin Archer takes on the role of Chief Strategy Officer.

Marcel now offers agentic solutions built and integrated based on each client's data and AI capabilities, relying on identity data from Epsilon and Lotame, and drawing on consultancy Publicis Sapient. CoreAI, the entity launched in 2024 with a planned investment of 300 million euros over three years, has also been integrated into Marcel.

More than 110,000 of Publicis's 114,000 employees use the Marcel platform monthly, according to the company. The platform includes builders embedded in client teams who work on setting up agents on their behalf, covering 90 client teams and 12 sectors.

In the next phase, the platform will expand into influencer and creator marketing, sports and culture, content analysis, and AI discovery. Campaign quoted Carla Serrano, Global Chief Strategy Officer, as saying that Marcel was key in a series of pitch wins the group secured uncontested, including PepsiCo, LVMH, and Microsoft.

What do these terms mean?

Agentic AI: An AI program that does not just answer questions, but executes multiple steps and makes decisions to reach a specific goal.

Identity Data: Information that links a person's activity across different devices and channels to a single identity, allowing an understanding of their online behavior.

Builders: Specialized employees who build and configure AI agents within the platform on behalf of the client, instead of handing over a ready-made tool.