J. Walter Thompson today officially announced Pangaea, an internal AI solution that allows anyone in its global network to ask questions and get answers from any of their 12,000+ colleagues around the world. Built by J. Walter Thompson Worldwide, Mirum, and Swiss AI specialist Starmind, Pangaea puts together neuroscience and AI development in a self-learning network that helps employees unlock the vast knowledge that exists within the network.
Employees can ask any question on the platform anonymously – whether it’s about a campaign, a client, a sales lead, or even the best place to host a business lunch. As employees respond, Pangaea logs and rates the quality of the answers. Learning who is best equipped to tackle certain questions and what existing answers offer the best solution, Pangaea provides faster and more accurate solutions for similar questions that may be posed in the future.
Pangaea resolves an inevitable organisational challenge that many large networks face: knowing whom to turn to when you have a question that your typical channels cannot answer. The AI connects users to the people they need to know to answer their questions rather than replacing human connection with tech.
Tamara Ingram, Worldwide Chief Executive Officer of the J. Walter Thompson Company, said: “Pangaea is named after the supercontinent that once existed before the continents broke apart and became what we know them to be today. Pangaea is our way of bringing the world back together – removing the barriers of time and language – so that our global community is connected across cultures and disciplines, becoming more accessible to each other – and more collaborative – than ever before.”
Jamie McLellan, the J. Walter Thompson Company’s Chief Technology Officer, added: “Our partnership with Starmind has been critical in developing what is our most ambitious effort to apply AI in a way that improves the way we work together as a network. With Starmind’s AI building block as the cognitive engine for Pangaea, we’ve created something that allows our staff to contribute to projects beyond their typical day-to-day. It makes us better positioned to create extraordinary work for our clients. This is no gimmick.”
The concept for Pangaea was born in 2015 and beta tested within the whole network in early 2016. It was launched internally last October. The platform is currently available to everyone in the J. Walter Thompson network via desktop or mobile device and is available in multiple languages. The move is just the latest in a concerted effort by adland at large to invest heavily in artificial intelligence. The most notable other recent example bring Publicis Groupe and their Marcel platform.
