A future driven by AI is firmly in WPP's sights and took centre stage as the group reported its latest global financial results for the first half of 2024.

The holdco has reported revenues were basically flat in its first-half 2024 results, rising just 0.1% to £7.227 billion (A$13.966 billion) globally, while revenue less pass-through (third-party) costs were down 3.6% to £5.599 billion.

Within this was £1.7bn in net new client billings, down slightly from the £2bn recorded a year ago, including AstraZeneca, Colgate-Palmolive and Johnson & Johnson.

Operating profit was improved, rising to £423 million at an operating profit margin of 5.9%, up 1.7 points, while headline operating profits were £646m, up 0.1% to 11.5% year-on-year. It's a figure WPP attributed to stronger and more disciplined cost management and lower restructuring costs.

Within like-for-like revenue results, North America saw a +2% gain, against just 0.3% in Western Continental Europe, a figure offset by the UK (-5.3%). Rest of World revenue including Australia was down -2.2%, offset by a significant 24.2% decline in China. The exception was India, which grew 9.1%.

Within the half year, WPP noted some uptick in its latest quarterly results - for example, Q2 reported revenue was up 1.4% to £3.815bn, or £2.912bn minus those third-party costs. WPP's net debt is still a hefty £3.4bn, down £1bn year-on-year.

In the Australian market specifically, the Holdco reported a marginal decline of 0.3% to like-for-like revenue for the June quarter - an improvement to the 3.4% dip recorded in Q1.

Across the agency brands, GroupM exhibited several solid performance results, such as like-for-like revenue (less pass through costs) up 1.9% in the first half.

The group has been going through a simplification initiative focused on improving structure and cost management, and to ensure GroupM operates as a unified entity globally.

Yet GroupM growth continues to be impacted by 2023 client assignment losses, which have been partially offset by wins including Nestle, the group stated, and Q2 growth slowed 1% year-on-year to 1.4% as a result of weaker German and China performance.

Ogilvy's performance, meanwhile, benefited from recent new business wins, including Verizon, good growth in CPG clients and stabilisation of spending by technology clients in Q2. Hogarth also benefitted from new business wins and growing demand for its technology and AI-driven capabilities, a situation WPP attributed to clients seeking to produce more personalised and addressable content.

VML continued to be impacted by the loss of Pfizer creative assignments, but saw sequential improvement in Q2, benefiting from recent new business wins and stabilisation of spending by technology clients. AKQA was impacted by delays in project-related spend.

Overall, WPP said revenue from its top 10 clients was up 2.5% in H1, led by CPG and automotive sectors. Technology, which has been going through quiet -and not so quiet - redundancies over the last year has reportedly stabilised, however healthcare and retail sectors both continue to struggle for WPP after several client losses in 2023.

The Holdco highlighted its agreement to sell its majority stake in FGS Global to private equity firm, KRR, as a big win. The sale gives FGC a market valuation of £1.7bn, and will generate £604m in cash for WPP's coffers.

WPP has set out AI, data and technology as its focus for future growth, and will continue to invest in the WPP Platform as part of its annual £250 million investment into AI-driven technology. The AI platform has seen a 74% increase in monthly active users since the start of the year, and is being utilised by key clients including Google, IBM, L'Oréal, LVMH, Nestlé and The Coca-Cola Company.

During the first half, WPP Open's Media Studio was deployed more broadly to clients, enabling the automation of complex media decisions across a range of channels. In addition, the platform's Creative Studio functionality was expanded to support strategy and creative teams.

“At our Capital Markets Day earlier this year we set out our strategy to build on and improve the competitiveness of WPP’s offer. I am very pleased with the progress we have made in the past six months against each of our strategic objectives, particularly our continued investment in AI, the creation of VML and Burson, and the simplification of GroupM. We are strengthening our offer for clients while building a more efficient company," said WPP global chief Mark Read.

"As a team, our priority continues to be improving our competitiveness by delivering a modern, global, creative and integrated offer for our clients. The steps we have taken since January to integrate our offer, bring in new talent and invest in AI represent strong progress towards delivering on our medium-term financial targets and to shareholders.”