WFA names leadership team for new AI Community

The first AI Community meeting will take place on 24 April, for which you can register here.

We have launched a new AI Community, led by a leadership team of senior marketing, media, procurement, legal and marketing operations experts from the world’s biggest brands.

The ambition is to support brands as they seek to make the most of the exciting possibilities of generative AI, enabling them to deliver creativity and marketing effectiveness, while mitigating legal, ethical and reputational risks.

The community will seek to develop best practice guidance and offer practical solutions on issues of strategic importance to brands in order to promote safe and suitable AI use. It will also explore emerging trends and seek to engage with external AI experts and ad industry partners to drive meaningful industry collaboration.

Membership will be cross functional, open to all senior marketers, legal and policy professionals dealing with AI and driving its use whose companies are WFA members. This breadth of expertise will enable it to pull together recent initiatives from across the WFA, including ongoing work by the Global Alliance for Responsible Media to tackle monetisation and moderation risks of generative AI.

The AI Community will be led by an AI Steer Team, bringing together senior WFA members from a range of different sectors to help establish strategic priorities and build a vibrant community that discusses key issues around AI use cases.

Members on the Steer Team include:

• Jérôme Amouyal, Media, Performance and Insights Director, AXA
• Richard Kindred, Senior Legal Counsel, Digital and Commercial, Diageo
• Gael De Talhouet, Vice President, Brand Building, Essity
• Oya Ünlü, Global Head of Data & Technology, Insights, IKEA 
• Ekaterina Bueva, Head of Marketing Services International, Kraft Heinz
• Adam Ingle, Global Lead, Digital Policy, The LEGO Group
• Ramzi Chaabane, Global Category Manager, L’Oréal
• Jacqui Stephenson, Global Responsible Marking Officer, Mars
• Becky Verano, Global Vice President Creativity and Capabilities, Reckitt
• Alyssa Fenoglio, Vice President, Global Head of Digital Commercial, Teva Pharmaceuticals

The leadership met on March 26 to develop initial priorities, with the first full community meeting due to take place on April 24.

“As marketers, we are all excited about the potential for generative AI but we know that using it wisely requires some serious thought. Our new AI Community and leadership team are designed to make sure that WFA members have the knowledge they need to implement effective and socially acceptable uses of this powerful new technology,” said Stephan Loerke, WFA CEO.

The creation of the Steer Team and the AI Community follows research that shows that while generative AI brings numerous opportunities for marketers, it also brings a number of risks.

WFA recently published an AI primer, designed to bring CMOs up to speed with the challenges of Generative AI and will continue to develop its expertise and member knowledge in this area.

The first AI Community meeting will take place on 24 April, for which you can register here.