At an investor day in April, CEO Mark Penn announced that Stagwell was testing a partnership with Palantir to explore whether the controversial AI firm’s technology can improve performance media targeting.
On Stagwell’s second quarter earnings call last week, Penn elaborated slightly on the partnership, telling investors that the companies are working to “develop state-of-the-art data targeting” technology within Stagwell’s ID Graph, leveraging structured and unstructured data from across its network.
In an interview with ADWEEK following the earnings call, Penn explained how Stagwell is testing Palantir’s AI on its internal data platforms such as BERA, an AI-powered brand insights platform that conducts 50,000 consumer interviews weekly, and marketing research firm National Research Group (NRG), which tracks entertainment and media behavior. That data is then fed into systems like Stage, Assembly’s media planning and buying platform, to fuel better media outcomes.
“How do they take our structured and unstructured data and improve the targeting out of that?” Penn said of Palantir.
Penn said Stagwell is piloting the technology with a single client for now and will assess a broader rollout from there. He described the collaboration as a controlled trial: “You get a successful drug, and then you go to market.”
While Palantir’s AI is currently being tested within Stage, its integration into Stagwell’s broader ID Graph system has not yet begun—though that’s the ultimate goal. “If they can [enhance targeting], we’ll then discuss how to take the partnership to another level,” Penn said.
The collaboration began roughly three months ago and is being led by a new cross-agency tech team at Stagwell, which includes recent hire Slavi Samardzija, the former CEO of Omnicom’s Annalect and one of the architects of its Omni platform, alongside chief AI officer John Kahan, former Accenture executive Mansoor Basha, and former Microsoft exec Elspeth Rollert.
Separately, Stagwell is developing an AI platform called The Machine, which centralizes and automates workflows and content creation and allows teams to monitor performance in the same interface. Penn said the long-term goal is to allow clients to query campaign performance, timelines, and creative assets directly through the platform.
A Polarizing Partner
Palantir is best known for its government work—including its contracts with the U.S. Department of Defense, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Its reported involvement in building a centralized “mega-database” of sensitive U.S. citizen information under the Trump Administration has drawn scrutiny from lawmakers over potential privacy violations.
The firm also works with commercial clients including Airbus, BP, Merck, and Ferrari, helping them integrate data to optimize operations—though its government business remains the majority of its revenue.
Palantir’s extensive role in surveillance and law enforcement has made the company a lightning rod in debates over the use of military-grade AI in commercial settings. On Stagwell’s Q1 earnings call in March, Penn described the effort as “developing advanced military-grade targeting to enhance the utilization of Stagwell’s unique datasets.”