At CES 2026 in Las Vegas, Havas revealed the upcoming launch of AVA, its global LLM portal built to provide secure, centralized access to the world’s most advanced AI models. AVA takes its name from the heart of Havas itself, reflecting the Group’s global connectedness and the evolution of its Village model, which brings together a wide range of expertise under one roof. AVA creates a unified, human-led AI ecosystem that connects every talent and client worldwide. AVA will begin rolling out this spring, progressively extending its capabilities across Havas teams and, over time, to client partnerships worldwide. Designed to provide trusted access to insights, agents, and proprietary intelligence, it empowers teams to move faster from brief to breakthrough, while ensuring safety and compliance. By connecting users to top-tier models like GPT-5, Claude Opus 4.5, and Gemini 3, AVA supercharges creativity, strategy, and collaboration. This helps teams choose the ideal “partner” for any task and unlock sharper insights, faster ideation, scalable solutions, and productivity at scale. The launch of AVA builds on Havas’ continued momentum with Converged.AI, introduced in 2024 to align teams, tools, and capabilities across markets. Supported by a nearly €1 billion ($1.16 billion) investment–including €600 million ($697 million) over the past decade and an additional €400 million ($464 million) committed through 2027–Converged.AI enables a flexible, data-agnostic approach designed to support faster, smarter decision-making and scalable, client-centric solutions. The announcement coincided with Havas chairman and CEO Yannick Bolloré joining brand leader Jim Stengel on the C Space stage for a keynote about the future of advertising, where AI enhances, not replaces, human creativity, judgment, and cultural insight. Addressing an audience of senior marketing, media, and technology leaders, Bolloré emphasized that generative AI is not just a technological shift but an organizational and cultural transformation, one that enables intelligence, creativity, and performance to scale together while keeping human judgment and empathy at the center. As part of this transformation, AI literacy is a top priority at Havas. The Group is committed to training and certifying every talent across the organization to harness AI responsibly and creatively….
Dr. Freda Lewis-Hall has been appointed M+C Saatchi North America’s first medical advisor, further strengthening its capabilities at the intersection of health, science, culture, and creativity. A pioneer in medicine and leadership with more than four decades of experience, Dr. Lewis-Hall has been a passionate advocate for improving patient outcomes, amplifying patient voices, and advancing better access to healthcare. In her advisory role, she will support M+C Saatchi North America as it deepens its focus on health and wellness, helping clients navigate increasingly complex scientific and regulatory landscapes. A graduate of Johns Hopkins University and Howard University College of Medicine, Dr. Lewis-Hall is an Honorary Fellow of the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Medicine of the Royal College of Physicians of the United Kingdom, and Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association. Most recently, she spent more than a decade at Pfizer Inc. as a member of the executive leadership team, serving as EVP and chief medical officer, and later as chief patient officer. She currently serves on numerous governmental, corporate and non-profit boards, including the Foundation of the National Institutes of Health, The Milken Institute’s FasterCures, the Davos Alzheimer’s Collaborative and the Focused Ultrasound Foundation. She was previously named “Woman of the Year” by the Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association, a “Notable Women in Technology” by Crain’s New York Business, and honored as one of the “Most Powerful Executives in Corporate America” by Black Enterprise magazine. In addition to being co-editor of “Psychiatric Illness in Women: Emerging Treatments and Research,” Dr. Lewis-Hall regularly contributes to health and wellness education on TV and radio shows, magazines, and websites, including as an expert on Dr. Phil and The Doctors…
