WPP names AI transformation lead

WPP has hired Anne-Isabelle Choueiri from The Estée Lauder Companies as chief transformation officer, a new role created to run its Elevate28 overhaul. (wpp.com) WPP said on April 10 that Choueiri will design, implement and embed the operating changes behind Elevate28, the three-year plan it unveiled on February 26, 2026. She will report to chief executive Cindy Rose, join the executive committee and be based in New York. (wpp.com) Choueiri spent six years at Estée Lauder and most recently served as senior vice president of transformation, where WPP said she helped shape the “One ELC” operating model and pushed marketing, data and artificial intelligence work across the company. Before that, she held leadership roles at Publicis Groupe and Accenture. (wpp.com) The hire lands weeks after WPP launched Elevate28, which is meant to turn the group from a holding company into a single company with four operating units: WPP Media, WPP Creative, WPP Production and WPP Enterprise Solutions. WPP said those units will operate across four regions: North America, Latin America, Europe, Middle East and Africa, and Asia Pacific. (wpp.com) WPP has tied that reorganization directly to artificial intelligence through WPP Open, its in-house marketing platform, which the company describes as a secure workspace for planning and execution with human staff and software agents working together. In January, WPP said its Agent Hub would give clients and roughly 100,000 employees access to specialized artificial intelligence tools built on that system. (wpp.com 1) (wpp.com 2) The backdrop is a weak 2025. In its February strategy update, WPP said recent underperformance came from “excessive organisational complexity,” a fragmented operating model and uneven execution, and it positioned Elevate28 as the fix. (wpp.com) Cindy Rose said in WPP’s 2025 annual report that clients had told the company they wanted WPP to be easier to navigate, more integrated and faster-moving. That helps explain why the new transformation job sits at group level and is tied to operations, not only technology. (wpp.com) WPP has already been pairing that pitch with partner deals. On February 24, it expanded its Adobe relationship to combine Adobe’s artificial intelligence and data tools with WPP Open and WPP’s consulting and creative services for marketing operations work. (wpp.com) Choueiri’s brief is to make that structure work inside the company, not just sell it outside. WPP is betting that an executive focused on operations, integration and artificial intelligence can turn Elevate28 from a February strategy deck into a working business model. (wpp.com)