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Stephan Pretorius
Chief Technology Officer at WPP
Stephan Pretorius is the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at WPP, a position he has held since 2018.13 He is also an Advisor at Conscium, a role he took on in 2024.3 Pretorius has over 20 years of experience in marketing and advertising technology.4
Interestingly, Pretorius is a unique CTO as he never formally studied computer science, software development, or engineering. He gained his technology expertise through practical application, intuition, and osmosis.1 This unconventional background has given him a humanistic perspective on technology, emphasizing a "people first, not technology first" approach.1
Pretorius describes himself as a "skeptical technologist," meaning he's optimistic about the long-term value of technology but always questions its purpose and impact.1 He focuses on how technology can enhance people's lives and solve problems, rather than being interested in technology for its own sake.1
In his role at WPP, Pretorius is involved in developing and deploying AI solutions for clients globally.2 He is passionate about helping brands develop their ever-evolving technological capabilities.4 Pretorius is also active on social media, where he discusses topics such as AI, martech, adtech, creativity, innovation, and growth.5
Highlights
What an honour to present at NVIDIA #GTC2024 this morning. Thanks Azita Martin for the invite and great dialog.
Key messages: 1 - We're in the middle of a full-scale AI Arms Race ... this speeds up normal business cycles and makes the stakes much higher. Be radical in thinking how this can impact your business. 2 - GenAI augments human creativity and expands the creative canvas. 3 - We need to apply AI to all traditionally defined marketing functions - creative, production, media, CRM, PR etc - but we also need to redefine how we think about and orchestrate marketing workflows and apply AI to the process to make it more automated and adaptive. 4 - There's a wide range of content use cases for GenAI, from ideation to scaled adaptation, to curated AI content engines and fully integrated industrial content supply chains.
#WPP #CreativeAI
Jensen Huang and Mark Read in conversation about virtual production, generative AI and the WPP and NVIDIA partnership. Masterclass for the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity audience about the history of AI and how technology augments human creativity.
#ai #generativeai #omniverse
