The holding company launches a Gen Z-led studio to fill advertising's AI skills gap with people who didn't come up through traditional agency ranks.
WPP, one of the world's largest advertising holding companies, is testing a new operating model: staffing an entire creative studio with Gen Z employees whose backgrounds lie outside traditional advertising.
The studio, called Hex, exists primarily to solve what the industry has been calling the AI skills gap. According to Marketing Dive, Hex is made up mostly of Gen Zers with non-advertising backgrounds, a deliberate bet that fresh talent from outside the industry brings AI capabilities that traditional agency pipelines haven't produced.
This move is a public signal from a $17 billion holding company that advertising talent and AI talent are no longer the same thing. If WPP needed to start from scratch and hire outside the industry, it means your current agency or in-house team may be missing the same capabilities.
If your agency or internal team can't answer these clearly, they're likely in the same position WPP identified: smart at advertising, but not native to AI.
WPP's bet on Gen Z outsiders also suggests you should stop waiting for the 'perfect marketing hire' with 15 years of agency experience. If you're building marketing operations, consider recruiting data engineers, ML practitioners, or software developers who understand AI infrastructure and can learn marketing, rather than marketing leaders trying to retrofit AI skills.
For now, the takeaway is simple: if your agency or team is still structured around traditional advertising talent, you're one generation behind where the industry is moving.
According to Marketing Dive, Hex was created specifically to address the advertising industry's AI skills gap. Traditional agency talent pipelines aren't producing enough people with the AI expertise clients now demand, so WPP is recruiting from outside advertising entirely.
Not necessarily, but WPP's move signals that agencies recognize a widespread gap. It's worth asking your current partners directly how they're structured for AI work and whether their team includes people with dedicated machine learning or AI engineering backgrounds.
This trend suggests that AI skills matter more than traditional marketing credentials for certain roles. Consider recruiting data engineers, machine learning specialists, or software developers into your marketing function, not just people with CMO or brand management experience.
The source doesn't detail Hex's output yet, but bringing non-traditional talent into ad work typically means different workflows, tools, and approaches. Expect faster experimentation and less reliance on legacy agency processes.