Client Name

WPP Media

Faculty Advisor

Dr. Azima Khan

SBS Thought Leadership Areas

Entrepreneurship and Innovation

SBS Thought Leadership Area Justification

The thought leadership area of Entrepreneurship & Innovation strongly aligns with our ELP, as the project focuses on identifying new value-creation opportunities through responsible innovation within an established organization. Using an entrepreneurial mindset, our ELP critically examined WPP Media’s existing client-facing workflows, identified inefficiencies, and reimagined how AI could be used to improve productivity, visibility, and decision-making without disrupting core operations.

Rather than proposing rapid or disruptive change, the project emphasizes incremental, scalable innovation through a structured AI Adoption Blueprint. This approach reflects entrepreneurial thinking by balancing experimentation with risk management, governance, and human oversight, enabling WPP Media to innovate sustainably while strengthening its long-term competitiveness.

Aligned SDGs

GOAL 9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure

Aligned SDGs Justification

The selected SDG, SDG 9: Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure, aligns closely with our ELP as the project focuses on strengthening organizational processes through responsible innovation. Our ELP examined WPP Media’s existing client-facing workflows and proposed an AI Adoption Blueprint that enhances operational infrastructure without disrupting core systems.

By identifying areas where AI can reduce manual effort, improve workflow visibility, and support better decision-making, the project promotes sustainable and scalable innovation. The emphasis on gradual adoption, governance, and human oversight ensures that innovation is resilient and ethically grounded. In this way, the ELP supports SDG 9 by fostering innovation-driven improvements that help organizations adapt to evolving industry demands while building stronger internal infrastructure.

NDA

No

Abstract

This Experiential Learning Project (ELP), "The Future is Now: Building an AI Adoption Blueprint for WPP Media," was carried out in conjunction with WPP Media (formerly GroupM) as part of the Institute of Business Administration's (IBA) final semester requirements. The project's goal was to investigate, evaluate, and record opportunities for responsible AI adoption in a few chosen client-facing workflows. The results were then presented as a strategic reference blueprint for WPP Media's internal use.

The project focused exclusively on understanding current-state workflows related to client briefing, media planning, pitch and proposal development, approvals, and campaign status communication. The scope of work was purposefully restricted to research and documentation; tool implementation, system configuration, and process execution were not included. This made sure that the output stayed objective, analytical, and in line with the professional and academic boundaries outlined in the Terms of Requirement.

The methodology used was qualitative and discovery-driven. Senior and junior media planners who are directly involved in client-facing operations were among the WPP Media team members with whom several Zoom meetings were held. The main dataset for analysis was created by fully transcribing and recording these conversations. These transcripts were used to map WPP Media's current-state (AS-IS) workflows, and an analysis was done to find recurrent operational problems and opportunities.

According to the analysis, WPP Media's client-facing workflows rely significantly on manual labor and individual planner intervention, despite being operationally sound and effective. A significant manual reporting workload, disjointed tools with poor integration, approval delays handled by email-based procedures, and increased role overload for media planners are some of the major issues noted. Additionally, client preferences for static reporting formats like Excel restrict automation options, increasing manual labor.

The project looked into how AI can help planners by reducing repetitive work, making it easier to see the workflow, and organizing information better, instead of replacing human skills.  We found possible uses for AI at every step of the process. The plan is to gradually use it while being careful about risks and keeping people involved in decision-making.  The final product is a complete plan for using AI that explains how things currently work, identifies challenges, highlights ways to use AI, lists useful resources, and provides a step-by-step guide for adopting AI with measures of success and potential risks.  This blueprint is designed to help WPP Media's internal teams plan for future improvements in how they use AI to serve their clients better.

Document Type

Restricted Access

Document Name for Citation

Experiential Learning Project

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