WPP and Meta Bring AI Closer to the Creative Process, With Unilever First in Line

Artificial intelligence has spent the past two years helping marketers create more content, faster. Now it is learning something arguably more valuable: why creative works in the first place.

In a move that signals the next phase of AI-powered advertising, WPP has become the first agency network selected to pilot Meta’s newest creative intelligence solution, integrating the technology directly into WPP Open, the holding company’s agentic marketing platform.

Consumer goods giant Unilever will become the inaugural client to test the capability, gaining early access to shape the product before its wider rollout.

The announcement reflects a broader shift taking place across the advertising industry.

AI is no longer simply generating copy, images or videos. Instead, it is beginning to analyse creative effectiveness, identify the elements driving performance and recommend improvements before campaigns go live.

That evolution could not come at a more critical time. Meta revealed that global ad impressions across its platforms increased by 19% during the first quarter of 2026.

With more than 3.5 billion people using at least one Meta app every day, marketers face an increasingly complex challenge: producing enough high-quality creative to remain relevant while ensuring every piece of content delivers measurable impact.

Beyond Generative AI

The new solution aims to bridge that gap.

Integrated within WPP Open, the platform transforms campaign performance data into actionable creative intelligence.

Rather than waiting until a campaign concludes to determine what succeeded, creative and media teams can collaborate in real time, using AI-generated insights to refine concepts, test new ideas and optimise campaigns while they are still in motion.

One of the platform’s most intriguing capabilities is its “brand memory” function, which learns a brand’s visual identity, tone of voice and creative principles from previous campaigns.

This enables AI-generated concepts to remain faithful to established brand guidelines, addressing one of the biggest concerns marketers have expressed about generative AI: maintaining consistency while scaling content production.

For agencies, perhaps the biggest attraction is that the technology works within existing workflows.

Teams can diagnose creative performance, generate fresh ideas and scale successful campaigns without adopting entirely new processes, reducing friction between strategy, creativity and media execution.

Unilever Leads the Way

Unilever’s participation also carries considerable significance.

As one of the world’s largest advertisers, the consumer goods giant has consistently positioned itself at the forefront of AI-enabled marketing transformation.

By partnering with both WPP and Meta during the beta phase, Unilever will influence how the technology evolves while accelerating creator-led brand building across its extensive portfolio.

Selina Sykes, Global Vice President of Digital, Social and AI Transformation for Beauty and Wellbeing at Unilever, described the initiative as an opportunity to shape a solution that enables brands to “move faster, create smarter and connect with consumers more effectively” across Meta’s platforms.

For WPP, the collaboration represents another milestone in its strategy of embedding AI throughout the marketing ecosystem rather than treating it as a standalone productivity tool.

Elav Horwitz, WPP’s Chief Innovation Officer, believes the competitive advantage lies not merely in generating more creative ideas, but in understanding why they resonate.

“The future of creative effectiveness is here, and it starts with better insights, not just what worked, but why,” he said.

“This is how we close the gap between creativity and media, turning insights into ideas and ideas into measurable impact.”

Meta shares that vision.

Nick Baughan, Director of Global Agencies at Meta, said creative teams should no longer have to wait for post-campaign reports before understanding what is connecting with audiences.

Embedding creative intelligence directly into agency workflows, he said, allows faster decision-making and more responsive campaign development.

The Bigger Picture

The partnership also highlights a growing convergence between creative, media and data disciplines. Historically, creative agencies developed campaigns while media teams optimised delivery after launch.

AI is beginning to collapse those traditional boundaries, creating continuous feedback loops where insights immediately inform new creative decisions.

For marketers, that could ultimately mean fewer campaigns built on instinct alone and more creative decisions backed by evidence without sacrificing imagination.

As generative AI rapidly becomes commonplace across advertising, competitive advantage may no longer belong to those producing the most content.

Instead, it may belong to those who best understand why audiences respond, and who can translate those insights into stronger creative work at unprecedented speed.

If this pilot succeeds, the next frontier of AI in marketing may not be replacing creativity. It may be making great creativity significantly more predictable.