Havas snags French data firm to turbocharge its AI ambitions

PARIS: Havas is buying Unnest, a French data consulting and engineering outfit, in a bid to beef up its ability to deploy AI-driven marketing solutions at industrial scale. The acquisition bolsters Havas Media Network’s global data and analytics arm, CSA, as part of what the group calls its Converged.AI strategy—corporate speak for using technology and data to help brands navigate digital transformation without falling flat on their faces.

Founded in 2021 by Nicolas Chollet and Mehdi Moreau, Unnest has carved out a niche building data platforms for blue-chip clients in retail, travel, beauty, automotive and luxury. Its team of specialists work across Google Cloud Platform, Azure, Snowflake and Amazon Cloud, designing infrastructure, ensuring data quality and governance, and developing use cases ranging from media performance measurement to first-party data activation and applied AI.

The deal will fold Unnest into Havas’s Business Science practice alongside existing units CSA Data Consulting, DBi and TED Consulting, creating a combined French team of 120 data experts. Havas plans to roll out these capabilities globally through CSA’s network, though it’s keeping Unnest’s name and letting the firm retain what it describes as its “agility and technological DNA.”

Havas  chairman and chief executive Yannick Bolloré says the acquisition will “accelerate our Converged.AI strategy” and help drive AI adoption across the group’s client base. Havas France chief data officer and president of Havas Data Business Intelligence Yoann Denée, reckons Unnest will enhance the group’s ability to deliver “increasingly advanced tech solutions” for clients wrestling with data, AI and automation challenges.
Chollet, for his part, sees the move as a chance to “leverage our technological expertise in support of a global vision” and contribute to “innovative solutions for brands”—which is consultant-speak for getting access to bigger budgets and fatter contracts.

Havas, which traces its roots back to 1835 Paris, operates in over 100 markets with nearly 23,000 people. The group has been pushing its Converged.AI model hard, promising to fuse data, technology and AI with what it calls “inspired human ideas” to churn out real-time, personalised marketing at scale. Whether that vision survives contact with actual clients remains to be seen. But with Unnest’s cloud engineering chops now in the fold, Havas at least has the pipes to try.