Advertising holding company Publicis Groupe has revealed Marcel, the firms new AI-powered assistant aimed at transforming its business into a platform and creating a “truly borderless, frictionless enterprise workforce, comprised of 80,000 employees worldwide”.

Named after Publicis Groupe founder Marcel Bleustein-Blanchet, the AI-driven digital assistant was announced in June 2017, and is designed to empower Publicis employees with greater knowledge, connectivity, opportunities and productivity tools.

“Our industry has gone through unprecedented challenges, demonstrating that incremental change is not a solution,” said Arthur Sadoun, CEO and chairman of Publicis Groupe. “The need for reinvention is stronger than ever. At Publicis Groupe, we havent waited to act. We have broken the divide between data, creativity and technology. We have broken our silos through the Power of One. Today, we are breaking the barriers between talent and opportunity with Marcel.

“Marcel is a journey to shift Publicis Groupe from a holding company to a platform and give creative minds the freedom to progress and thrive in this ever-changing industry. Tying the development of Marcel to our one-year industry event hiatus was a controversial decision, but a necessary one. It drew a line in the sand and left no doubt that we are determined to do whatever it takes to reinvent an industry that has struggled to evolve over the past 40 years.”

The Marcel AI Platform has been built on Microsoft AI and Knowledge Graph technologies, designed to unlock the more than 5bn data files under Publicis Groupes control. The Knowledge Graph connects both structured and unstructured data that exists across the organisation, mapping relationships within it to power innovation and provide insights.

The platform is launching as an iOS and Android app, with a desktop version planned for the future. At the moment, 100 alpha users have access, but in June a beta release will increase that number to 1,000 selected users designed to represent the Publicis Group in terms of agency, role and geography. The current rollout timetable will see 90 per cent of employees gain access by 2020, following feedback from the extensive beta testing.