"What struck me at Next was the absence of the word 'efficiency' in many of the conversations," observed Elav Horwitz, EVP, Global Head of Strategic Partnerships and Solutions for WPP. "The conversation has definitely shifted to demonstrating real-world use cases.”

And WPP was at the heart of this transformation, not just as an attendee, but as a key partner leveraging Google's technologies to drive growth for clients. So, what can attendees take away from Google Cloud Next?

AI and multi-agent systems – moving beyond theory into delivery

Agentic AI was a central topic at Next '25, with Google announcing updates to Google Agentspace and investing in the agent development stack, including a new Agent2Agent protocol. This investment in an open agentic ecosystem promises to streamline workflows and unify organisational knowledge.

While many organisations discussed agent solutions in theoretical terms, WPP has already democratised access to an Agent Builder within WPP Open, the company’s AI-powered operating system. This has led to the development of expert agents that offer verticalised expertise and business practices across the entire organisation.

"The conversation around agents at Next for many companies was often hypothetical," notes Stephan Pretorius, Chief Technology Officer at WPP. "At WPP we've moved beyond this - our employees have built and deployed over 28,000 agents through our Agent Builder to help with tasks such as media planning, analytics, content generation and more. By making these technologies accessible, it empowers our teams to experiment and innovate.”

WPP shared expertise and learnings on its agent strategy in two breakout sessions, the first featuring WPP’s SVP of Creative AI Perry Nightingale, who joined Vodafone and Deutsche Bank to share actionable insights on how teams are using agents across WPP and measuring the business value derived by these workflows.

VML MAP’s David Bartram Shaw also hosted a session discussing the company’s agentic evolutions and the process by which VML has developed WPP Open’s Experience Studio working with the Google Cloud teams.

Scaling generative AI for creative production

In his keynote speech for the conference, Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian emphasised how rapidly AI technology is evolving, also highlighting Google's models ranging across modalities from text to image to voice and video.

The keynote highlighted how WPP's investment to integrate Google's generative AI tools into WPP Open is enabling teams to use Canvas and Creative Studio applications to move from idea to concept quicker than ever before.

The clear progress Google has made in its generative AI suite, particularly in video, was nowhere more apparent than the remake of The Wizard of Oz for the Sphere, redeveloped entirely using custom versions of Veo, Imagen and Gemini.

"Seeing The Wizard of Oz reimagined for the Sphere, leveraging Google Cloud's AI to enhance the film's resolution to 16K, is a truly inspiring example of what's possible," Horwitz adds.

“Our focus is on scaling these tools for enterprise production, building custom models that meet the unique needs of our clients and pushing the boundaries of what we can do."

The companies paired up to host breakout sessions sharing insights on how these models are being used today, and what comes next for this technology.

Nightingale shared that WPP teams are now integrating Veo 2 into production-ready assets for clients, exemplified by a new campaign created by AKQA for CoreWeave, demonstrating the tangible impact of AI on creative production.

Broadening the partnership – Google Research and Geospatial Intelligence

Beyond content and creative, WPP is pushing the boundaries of AI's potential, as a launch partner of Google’s Geospatial Research testing program, specifically for Population Foundation Dynamic Models (PDFM). Announced during Next, this work aims to revolutionise how we understand and interact with the physical world and unlock insights that impact consumers and brands alike, across every vertical.

"We're beginning to see real-world AI mapping at the population level, which has immense predictive power for our clients' businesses and supply chains," explains Daniel Hulme, Chief AI Officer at WPP. “This signifies a move towards a more data-driven and predictive approach to marketing and advertising.”

Choreograph, WPP's global data company, will be integrating Google’s Population Dynamics Foundation Model with WPP’s proprietary media performance data and insights, enabling clients to have a deeper understanding of their target audiences and markets, leading to more effective campaigns and optimised media spend.