Omnicom has outsourced hundreds of engineers and product staff involved in building its flagship Omni AI-powered platform to IT services company Endava, according to an exclusive report by Adweek.
The holding company quietly transferred substantial parts of its engineering and product teams to Endava in June and July, even as it has positioned the overhauled Omni platform as a central part of its future client offering.
According to documentation obtained by Adweek, at least 468 employees across the US, UK, India and Malaysia were affected. Most of those employees were in product and engineering roles responsible for developing the platform.
The move comes months after Omnicom showcased the revamped Omni platform at CES in January, presenting it as a key component of its AI-driven offering to clients.
Separately, Omnicom laid off around 50 US employees from its Omni Platforms Product & Engineering Division on June 9, according to the documentation.
The restructuring comes as major advertising holding companies continue to invest heavily in AI while reassessing how they build, operate and staff technology platforms.
The affected staffers were moved to Endava rather than remaining directly employed by Omnicom, according to the report.
Relevance to the GCC region?
The development is relevant to the GCC because Omnicom has a significant presence across the Middle East, while the region is rapidly becoming a major market for AI-led advertising and marketing services. The outsourcing of the teams behind Omni raises questions about how global agencies will build and deliver AI capabilities to clients in markets such as the UAE and Saudi Arabia.
For GCC clients, the key issue is not simply whether Omnicom is reducing its internal technology workforce, but who will own, develop and support the AI infrastructure being offered to brands in the region. If engineering and product functions are increasingly handled by external technology partners such as Endava, the shift could signal a broader restructuring of the agency model: global holding companies may retain AI strategy, client relationships and data while relying more heavily on third-party technology companies for platform development.
This is particularly relevant as Saudi Arabia and the UAE are investing heavily in AI adoption across government, business and marketing, creating demand for sophisticated AI-powered advertising, personalisation, data analytics and content tools. The Omnicom-Endava arrangement could therefore offer an early indication of how global agency groups are adapting their operating models to meet that demand while controlling the cost of maintaining large in-house technology teams.
