WPP debuts Hex studio to build AI-ready creative production talent
WPP created Hex inside WPP Production with ~50 creative technologists to deliver AI-enabled production, R&D, and client training.
WPP has launched Hex, a new studio inside WPP Production aimed at addressing the growing AI skills gap in creative and production teams. The company outlined the move in an official newsroom post.
Hex starts with around 50 creative technologists drawn from WPP’s Creative Tech Apprenticeship, a nine-month paid program introduced in 2022 that recruits talent from outside traditional advertising and engineering pipelines.
Table of contents
Jump to each section:
- What Hex is, and what it adds inside WPP Production
- How Hex plans to work with clients in practice
- Why the talent pipeline is the real product
- What marketers should ask their agencies about AI workflows
- Where this fits in WPP’s broader turnaround effort
What Hex is, and what it adds inside WPP Production
Hex is positioned as a hybrid unit that functions as a creative production studio, an R&D lab, and a consultancy. Its stated specialization areas include generative and agentic AI, gaming, immersive experiences, and robotics.
Operationally, the setup matters because it puts emerging-tech experimentation next to day-to-day content production, rather than treating AI as a separate innovation track. For marketing teams, this tends to shorten the path between “prototype” and “shippable assets,” especially when work spans both digital and physical experiences.
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How Hex plans to work with clients in practice
Hex’s model includes “forward-deployed” teams embedding with clients for months at a time to assess problems, build custom solutions, and train internal teams on AI workflows. That blend of delivery plus enablement is a notable shift from agency support that ends at a campaign or asset handoff.
The studio’s service mix spans conventional production work, such as using generative AI to create TV advertising assets, as well as building interactive games, designing sensory physical experiences, and running AI workshops for executives. WPP also cites work that combined AI coaching with real-time motion capture at SXSW 2025 for Unilever’s Dirt Is Good, plus projects involving hardware prototyping.
Why the talent pipeline is the real product
Hex is staffed from WPP’s Creative Tech Apprenticeship (CTA), a nine-month paid program founded in 2022. The apprenticeship recruits from outside traditional advertising and engineering schools, emphasizing creative problem-solving and fast technology adoption.
WPP has set a target of training at least 1,000 people by 2030 through the program. If executed well, that creates a repeatable operating advantage: not just having access to tools, but having a steady supply of practitioners who can apply them in production settings and teach internal teams how to run the workflows.
WPP also points to a training gap in the broader market. DataCamp research conducted with YouGov found 88% of leaders view AI and data literacy as a fundamental skill on par with writing, while fewer than half of surveyed organizations offer basic training.
What marketers should ask their agencies about AI workflows
For brands, Hex is a prompt to get more specific about what “AI-enabled” agency work actually means. Useful questions to ask are operational, not philosophical:
- How will AI-generated assets be reviewed, versioned, and approved across teams?
- Which parts of production are automated, and which remain manual (and why)?
- What training is included so internal marketing teams can keep using the workflows after the embedded period ends?
- When interactive or physical experiences are involved, who owns the technical maintenance path after launch?
Because Hex also leans into gaming, immersive experiences, and robotics, marketers should clarify how these executions tie back to measurable business goals and what the “minimum viable” version looks like before committing to complex builds.
Where this fits in WPP’s broader turnaround effort
Hex arrives as WPP continues consolidating production capabilities under WPP Production and anchors its broader business around four core service areas. The company’s Elevate28 plan also prioritizes WPP Open and AI know-how, including the hire of its first chief technology officer.
The timing is also connected to financial pressure. WPP reported like-for-like revenue less pass-through costs declined 6.7% year over year to 2.3 billion pounds (about $2.93 billion) in Q1, with losses expected to continue through the first half of the year. In that context, Hex reads as a capability bet: building AI execution capacity while trying to strengthen delivery speed and relevance for clients.
