The Machine<\/a> (but which formally launched in January 2026), in that it\u2019s a media-specific operating layer\u00a0that enables workflow through an integrated operating system. Working up and down the funnel, The Media Machine aims to execute agentic buying via a more connected process across\u00a0Stagwell\u2019s\u00a0existing media stack.\u00a0<\/p>\nThe\u00a0operating system can work directly with sell-side ecosystems including\u00a0Google\u2019s GMP products, Meta,\u00a0Microsoft\/LinkedIn, TikTok and\u00a0The Trade Desk, and can plan and activate in one workflow. There\u2019s separate audience-first planning from brief through to activation via an ID graph, and advanced market mix modeling helps to make quicker and more accurate performance insights followed by decisions.\u00a0Its builders say it\u2019s open-sourced enough to work across platforms including Figma, Slack, Teams, Adobe, and performance dashboards,\u00a0which obviates the need for new closed-system software.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
One of those builders is Slavi Samardzija, global chair of media and commerce at\u00a0Stagwell, who explained that Stagwell\u2019s AI plans and vision were already well underway when he joined the holdco a year ago. And he\u2019s worked closely with Brad Nunn, managing director of media at Stagwell agency Gale, who got the effort going in the first place. Gale and fellow media agency Assembly are the tip of the spear in developing and rolling out The Media Machine, but it\u2019s designed to work across all of the holdco\u2019s agencies and units.<\/p>\n
Samardzija joined Stagwell in 2025 following an 11-year stint at Omnicom, where he was instrumental in the creation and running of that holdco\u2019s Omni operating platform. He said it\u2019s been interesting to see an OS being built from the outside \u2014 since The Media Machine was already in the works under Nunn.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cBy going through all of the steps of the media workflow, we are supporting just as much the innovation and strategy as we are tactical decisions in QA,\u201d said Samardzija, who noted that humans still make final decisions and approvals, today at least. \u201cThe balance of automation changes, but the role of The Media Machine is to deliver that, because the AI is automating both the workflow and also the consumer experience \u2014 and we, as marketers, are advertising both to humans and to the machines and agents.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jay Pattisall, vp and senior agency analyst at Forrester, noted with interest that Samardzija would choose to build an interoperable, agentic layer for an OS given his past experience with Omni. Pattisall pointed out that other ex-holdco execs are doing the same at other outfits \u2014 for example, Roy Armale, who Pattisall recalls was instrumental in developing WPP Open. \u201cIt would appear given the chance to do it again, both choose interoperability with client technology,\u201d said Pattisall. \u201cBut it\u2019s no surprise Slavi would start with agentic technology as its the latest.\u201d<\/p>\n
For his part, Nunn played up the interoperability of the entire system, across the The Machine and The Media Machine. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of agent to agent communication across both Code [Code and Theory Network, which built The Machine] and The Media Machine to make sure that information is passed back and forth,\u201d said Nunn, who said a number of clients are in alpha testing, and there\u2019s a rollout schedule for the next set of clients. \u201cAnd we\u2019re able to leverage all the operating system structure that The Machine creates for us, while also ensuring that we have deep media tools to drive efficiencies for clients.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery module application within the tool actually has a lot of connectivity with one another,\u201d Nunn added, \u201cso all the agents within the platform are talking to one another, as well as with the MCPs that we\u2019ve created within the media platforms.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pattisall pointed out that while The Media Machine uses an agentic layer to sit on top of brand\/ advertiser tech stacks as an intermediary layer to enhance activation, what sets it apart is the connection into the audience data system the holdco has with Palantir for audience data. It\u2019s a second-generation OS, where first-generation systems like Omni and Acxiom, MRCL and Epsilon, dentsu Connect and Merkury or WPP Open and InfoSum are closed systems. \u201cBut at the end of the day all agency OS arrive at the same end: end-to-end marketing workflows powered by AI and data,\u201d he said. \u201cThe Media Machine accomplishes this through different means, including interoperability with client stacks and third-party partners.\u201d<\/p>\n
Perhaps, noted Samardzija, is the fact that the other holdcos are stuck having to still operate with legacy systems, where Stagwell being a younger company, has more freedom to build it today \u2014 much like if an airport were designed from scratch today, it wouldn\u2019t resemble an airport built even 20 years ago.\u00a0<\/p>\n
That\u2019s exactly what Adam Katz, CEO of Sightly, noticed \u2014 the speed with which Stagwell is moving because it\u2019s not bogged down with legacy systems and internal politics. Sightly just got its Brand Mentality MCP platform<\/a>, which helps brands understand culture and audience behavior in real time, integrated into Agent Cloud, an AI agent marketplace within the Stagwell\u2019s other unit, Stagwell Marketing Cloud.<\/p>\n\u201cStagwell is prepared for the future, they\u2019ve done a very good job of moving fast and being prepared for how to operate with new agentic systems and speed,\u201d said Katz. \u201cit was impressive how much they knew what they wanted \u2014 they know how to take the technology, they\u2019re future ready, and they understand what they\u2019re trying to do.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Stagwell has launched The Media Machine, a media-side extension of The Machine, Digiday has learned. The Media Machine…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":648016,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[554,733,4308,86,218189,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-648015","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-technology","tag-the-business-of-ai","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/648015","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=648015"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/648015\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/648016"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=648015"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=648015"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=648015"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}