Not too long ago, a handful of campaign assets could carry a brand through an entire marketing cycle. Today, brands are expected to create hundreds of pieces of content across platforms, formats and audiences, often within days, not months. With content consumption exploding and client expectations accelerating, the rules of production are being rewritten in real time.
For agencies, the challenge is hence, no longer just about creating great work; it is about delivering quality at unprecedented speed and scale across markets. To meet this requirement, WPP has brought its production capabilities together under WPP Production, betting on a more integrated approach to talent, technology and execution. In conversation with IMPACT, Apoorva Bapna, Transformation Lead, and Raunaq Sikka, National Creative Director, WPP Production, unpack how production is evolving from a backend function into a strategic growth engine and why the future belongs to organisations that can move fast without losing creative depth.
Watch the video here:
Read the edited excerpts below:
What was the insight behind WPP Production, and how do you see the ecosystem evolving today?
Bapna: About five years back, everything within the creative and media ecosystem was fragmented, so one thing would lead to the other. But with AI coming into play, things have become more consolidated. We felt WPP Production also needed to go through a sense of consolidation, not in the traditional sense, but by looking at the entire journey, from brief to execution, production and distribution, as one process that runs in parallel. That thought, coupled with the need to produce content at scale, led to WPP Production. It wasn't just a rebranding exercise; it was also about changing the way we approach work. One of the biggest shifts has been the consolidation of talent. Production talent that was sitting across different agencies is now coming together under a single WPP Production unit, allowing us to deliver work at scale, with speed, and with AI as the spine.
How have client expectations evolved in recent years? What are the biggest priorities clients are bringing to WPP today?
Sikka: I wouldn't even speak about years. In the last few months, with the advent of AI, things are moving much faster and everybody expects much more at a much higher speed. We've seen the shift from, “Can we do this six months down the line?” to “Can we do this in six days?” Content needs have also increased. This is why production needs to be automated, while craft and quality still need to deliver. That's where AI comes into play.
Bapna: Clients want scale, speed and multiple formats, but they're not looking at increasing budgets phenomenally. They still want better quality and greater efficiency without a corresponding increase in cost, and that's where AI plays a critical role. Today, content formats are relevant across markets globally, which is one of the biggest shifts we've seen, especially from global clients.
When working with global clients, do you see any difference between their expectations and those of Indian clients?
Sikka: Not from a craft point of view. Everybody expects great quality. But in terms of speed, India wants to run much faster. Local market clients typically want things to be addressed much quicker than global counterparts. That's the biggest difference we see. Other than that, the standards of craft and quality remain very similar.
Bapna: To some extent, cultural nuances also come into play. Global brands want consistency across geographies, but cultural relevance is equally critical. A festival that's important in India may not be relevant in another market. The challenge is how you keep those cultural nuances in mind while still delivering consistency to clients globally.
What was the insight behind HIVE, and what role does it play within the WPP Production ecosystem?
Bapna: When you look at AI in agencies today, most people are using it only at the level of execution. But there's so much more that AI can do. It can transform workflows, bring efficiencies and improve business outcomes. For that level of AI literacy, you need talent that is AI-first in its thinking. That's the insight behind HIVE. What we're building is a global talent programme that encourages people to use AI as their first way of thinking when a problem comes to them. We're not discounting human intelligence because that will always stay. What AI can do is bring greater efficiency while keeping the creative brain intact. The programme combines learning with real-world application, with participants working on live briefs throughout. By the end of the two-month programme, they are ready to work with us as employees of the organisation.
How long has this programme been running, and who is it designed for?
Bapna: This is the first time. We're debuting HIVE in India for the first time. Of course, it ran under a different name globally, but we've brought it to India keeping the Indian context in mind. This year is our pilot, but the intent is to scale it in the future. Not limit it only to talent coming from outside, but also use it for talent within the organisation. We also want to make it available through educational institutions and partnerships in the future.
Sikka: For the first year, we've kept it open to final-year students, first-jobbers and people who are new to the industry and want to shift their skill set towards AI. Once the pilot is done, we'll know whether we want to open it to a larger market. Right now, it's for people looking to enter the job market fully armed with AI.
Will participants be offered a placement opportunity at WPP?
Sikka: If they perform well, yes.
Bapna: There's an assessment at the end of the programme. If participants meet the assessment scores, they'll definitely be offered a job with us. What's also interesting is the diversity of talent that's applied for the programme. On one end, we have people from top-tier engineering schools and IITs, and on the other, people from the creative world. It's a great mix, and that's what will make the programme interesting. There will be provocation, debate, questioning and learning from people coming in with such strong and diverse backgrounds.
With AI now handling much of the work that junior creatives once learned through, is the industry at risk of losing an important training ground? And more broadly, do you see AI changing the role and relevance of creativity in the years ahead?
Sikka: There are two ways to look at it. There is work in our world which is high on empathy, and there is work which is high on scale and volume. AI can manage scale and volume, but empathy still requires humans. That's why creative input will always require a human at the end judging AI. It's not replacing people, it's augmenting people. If I were to relate it to something, what is an Iron Man suit without the Iron Man himself within it? AI is the suit. As long as the human augmenting it is there, you can make the best use of it. The juniors also need to look at AI as their partner. If you're going to put blinders on and say there is no AI, then of course you risk becoming irrelevant. But if you're augmenting yourself with it, there is no chance.
Through HIVE, what skills and capabilities are you looking to build in the next generation of talent?
Bapna: The first thing we're looking at is a mindset shift. We want people to look at AI from a thinking standpoint, rather than using it somewhere in the process. The second is governance and legal, so people understand where and how AI can be used and what the implications are. The third is WPP Open, our intelligent operating system, through which most of the learning will happen, supported by practical assignments and assessments.
Sikka: What we're training is an overall way of working. HIVE is not about creating with AI. It's about thinking with AI. AI comes into play at various stages, from data analytics and strategy to creating the work itself and media production. We're teaching all of it through practical assignments and real-world briefs, which is why we see it as more of an internship than a training programme.
Is the industry entering a phase where integration is becoming more important than specialisation?
Bapna:If you look across the industry, there's a huge consolidation exercise happening. It brings efficiency and helps bring talent together in a way that is more useful for the business. The whole process has also changed. Earlier, you would move from brief to strategy to creative to media and then production. Today, everything is happening parallelly. Clients are not doing things in a sequential fashion anymore.
That's why we've moved towards consolidation. There was an era when we were focused heavily on specialisation. With AI coming into play, we've moved back towards greater integration. Specialised roles still exist, but by and large, integration is the way forward because it helps people collaborate better and deliver better outcomes for clients.
So, would you say this is an era of ‘jack of all trades, master of some’?
Sikka: In a way, yes. Today, I see copywriters becoming better art directors because they can write better prompts. There is no need to stick to one silo. A writer who earlier had no means of creating something in Photoshop can now create their own art. You're able to do a lot more than before, and we just need to adapt and move on.
Bapna: You can still be a master of one thing. But what's changed is that being a master of one is no longer enough. You're expected to know what's happening around you. Today, more and more people are able to work and think in multiple ways rather than being very linear.
Do you see AI leading to a reduction in the workforce?
Sikka: The number of employees you need depends on the size of the business, not on how many AI tools you have. What AI does bring is greater efficiency. The same number of people can now deliver more work, especially in production where you're required to create assets at scale. The scale increases with the same number of people, so ultimately it comes down to the size of the business.
Looking ahead, what do you think the future of content production will look like? With technology coming into the picture, what will define success for brands, and how will WPP Production help them achieve it?
Sikka: It's a difficult question to answer because the ecosystem is shifting faster than we can change. With AI, by the time you start mastering one tool, it has already evolved. It's not linear anymore. What we bring to the table is delivering craft at scale while maintaining quality. WPP has also invested heavily in WPP Open, which gives us access to multiple LLMs within a legal, brand-safe framework, helping us augment the work we do and deliver it at scale.
Bapna: From my perspective, it's really about a mindset shift and a skill-set shift. People need to embrace the right mindset to adapt to a changing world, and that needs to be coupled with the right skills. Whether it's incoming talent or people already within the organisation, the focus has to be on upskilling them and equipping them with the capabilities they'll need in the future.
