Publicis Groupe, the Paris-based advertising and marketing group, announced on March 12, 2026 that it had acquired AdgeAI, an Israeli startup whose software measures and predicts how well ads and other creative work will perform. The companies did not disclose the financial terms.
The Israeli business daily Calcalist reported that the price was an estimated $100 million, a figure The Jerusalem Post also cited. Neither Publicis nor AdgeAI confirmed it.
AdgeAI's technology will be integrated into Publicis Production, the group's content production unit, which is led by chief executive Deepti Velury. Calcalist reported that AdgeAI was expected to keep operating and developing its own product in the brand marketing market.
What AdgeAI built
AdgeAI's platform analyses engagement and conversion data from campaigns to work out which elements of an ad or video drive results. It then gives marketers recommendations on what content to make and which assets to scale, with the aim of improving return on ad spend.
Calcalist described the system as a set of autonomous AI agents for marketing and growth teams at large companies. The agents connect to tools such as Salesforce and Google Ads, analyse campaign performance and adjust budgets and creative choices on their own, often within hours. Much of the company's work centred on user acquisition, identifying which audiences respond to which messages.
Marketing Dive reported that AdgeAI's website lists Procter & Gamble, Meta and Tula Skincare among the clients it has worked with.
“This is a defining moment not just for Adge, but for how the industry thinks about creative intelligence. By bringing our technology into Publicis' existing engine, we're giving brands something they've never had before; the ability to move at the speed of the algorithm without losing the spark of great creative.”
The founders and the funding
AdgeAI was founded in 2023, days before the October 7 attacks, by Eyal Ben Shalom, its chief executive, and his brother Asaf Ben Shalom, its chief technology officer, according to Calcalist. The company ran on its own revenue and did not raise external capital.
It took part in Meta's AI accelerator programme in Israel. In the year before the sale it hired two former Meta executives, Adam Raz as chief marketing officer and Udi Avital as chief creative officer, Calcalist reported. AdgeAI did not disclose its headcount.
Why Publicis is buying
Publicis said its clients can now produce content more cheaply and quickly than ever, but often cannot tell which assets work, which do not, and whether their messages lead to sales. By plugging AdgeAI into its production platform, the group said, it can offer measurement and performance predictions in real time and act on them before campaigns are fully rolled out.
Chairman and chief executive Arthur Sadoun said the group had already built a lead in real-time media measurement and now wanted the same precision for content. He said the deal would turn creative measurement from a report written after a campaign into a forecast made before it.
Velury said AdgeAI analysed creative work in fine detail and at speed, finding patterns tied directly to performance outcomes. She said that kind of analysis was usually siloed, done by hand or missing from the tools on the market.
Publicis keeps buying data and AI companies
The deal followed Publicis' purchase of the identity data company Lotame the previous year, part of a strategy built around AI and data-driven marketing, Marketing Dive reported. Publicis, which owns agencies including Digitas and Starcom, reported organic revenue growth of 5.9% to €3.87 billion (about $4.57 billion) in the fourth quarter of 2025.
In June 2026 Publicis Israel presented Brain, a working system that combines data, AI, media and creative, with Lotame as its data layer. The Jerusalem Post, reporting on that launch, said Publicis Groupe had spent more than €12 billion (about $14 billion) on acquisitions in data, technology and AI, and that AdgeAI was one of them. Calcalist placed the AdgeAI deal alongside other recent purchases of young Israeli AI companies, including Nvidia's acquisition of Illumex and Palo Alto Networks' purchase of Koi.
