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Treasurer Bot takes up key role at advertising giant

Published: Sep 2025
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WPP

Photo of Gemma Inzani, Alex Ashby and Mueesa Mansuri, WPP.

Alex Ashby

Group Treasurer
WPP logo

UK

WPP plc is a British multinational holding company, primarily known as the UK’s largest advertising company.

WPP, a global advertising giant, has developed its own proprietary AI system, ‘WPP Open,’ designed to integrate, optimise and automate marketing through the creation of ‘Brand Brains’ using AI.

Group treasury, led by Alex Ashby, leveraged the secure environment to design and build a Treasurer Bot, an AI powered tool whose intelligence is gained from a foundation of core WPP treasury practices and policies, core reporting and past treasury committee papers creating an environment for the whole global treasury team to have ease of access for reference to policy or tools to validate proposed actions as well as sharing with new team members who want to upskill and learn about another aspect of treasury in the context of WPP banking arrangements, products and services in other regions.

Creativity within finance

This isn’t just a digital assistant; it’s becoming a central repository for key treasury strategies and best in class approach for all to access, with further capability to develop the more we programme. Having spent 2024/5 prioritising an increased adoption of straight through workflows and automation tools the result is a ‘Treasurer Bot’ poised to transform day-to-day treasury operations, standardise ways of working across the global treasury team, led by Alex Ashby and Gemma Inzani. “This isn’t just about automation; it’s about embedding advanced AI into the heart of corporate treasury function.”

Beyond automation: enhancing decision-making and compliance

The vision is to develop and deploy a lite version of the bot for use by finance teams responsible for FX risk management across the agencies, accessing real time interactive treasury voice to reaffirm FX hedging approach, tools and limits. The solution helps communicate at scale the best practice approach as intended by Group Treasurer which might shift through time, reaffirming treasury strategies, delegated authority limits eg cash management practices and processes, how to guides eg cash pools, Board approved counterparty bank policy and so on, harvesting a self-serve approach to ensuring compliance of the treasury control framework. While acknowledging potential AI risks, treasury maintain the robust controls and monitoring alongside it’s use.

A strategic shift: time for what matters

The tool compliments incumbent systems like the Treasury Management System, Power BI and Alteryx so with further integration could further optimise ways of working whilst steering the wider business toward treasury specific strategic ambitions. There are so many opportunities to leverage this tool globally it’s a very exciting time for the WPP treasury team.

Adam Smith Awards sail

The Adam Smith Awards are the industry benchmark for best practice and innovation in corporate treasury. The 2025 awards attracted 454 nominations. To find out more please visit treasurytoday.com/adam-smith-awards

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