Palantir and Stagwell launch an AI-driven marketing platform built for scale
Palantir and Stagwell Inc. have partnered to deliver an AI-driven marketing platform that blends Palantir's Foundry, Code and Theory's orchestration software, and Stagwell Marketing Cloud's data and solutions. The goal: help large, complex teams plan, target, and execute campaigns in one place.
Mark Penn, Stagwell's chairman and CEO, said the idea came from conversations with Palantir CEO Alex Karp about building an AI-enabled marketing suite. "We both looked at how we could take the combination of data that Stagwell has with third-party data and the first-party data from the client, and we could build a flexible AI-based model that I call the holy grail of marketing."
He added a simple test for usefulness: "Give me those people who you think will buy an umbrella on the next rainy day," and have the system find them and launch a campaign.
What marketers get
The platform is built for enterprise teams that need coordination across HQ, regions, and stores. It lets users ask plain-English questions to generate target audiences, then move straight into activation.
Stagwell has also implemented differential privacy techniques to protect user data while enabling audience modeling. That matters as more campaigns lean on first-party data and strict governance.
From Palantir's side, the development approach leans on recent model advances. "It takes significantly less coding ability to do something like that with our product, therefore people with extreme domain expertise can execute their ideas much, much faster," said Kevin Kawasaki, Palantir's global head of business development.
He noted that two companies in the same industry could get very different solutions, depending on how their teams interact with data and workflows. The promise is speed without forcing every client into the same template.
How it works at a high level
- Data foundation: unify first-party and third-party data in Palantir Foundry.
- Orchestration: coordinate planning, creative, and channel ops with Code and Theory's layer.
- Activation: use Stagwell Marketing Cloud's audience and media tools to deploy programs at scale (learn more).
- Privacy: apply differential privacy so teams can work safely with sensitive data.
Practical use cases to test first
- Weather-triggered promotions (e.g., umbrellas, heaters, sunscreen) using store-level inventory and local forecasts.
- Local budgets that auto-shift to the highest-ROI audiences by store, region, or franchise.
- Creative and channel mixes that update as performance data comes in, with clear guardrails.
- Audience discovery from plain-English prompts, then 1-click activation to paid, CRM, or site personalization.
- Privacy-safe lookalikes built from first-party data without exposing raw records.
How to prepare your team
- Data audit: map your first-party sources, quality, consent status, and gaps you'll fill with partners.
- Governance: define permissions for HQ vs. local managers and set approval flows for activations.
- Pilot: start with one brand or region and 2-3 clear use cases. Prove impact, then expand.
- Upskill: train media, CRM, and retail ops to write effective plain-English prompts and QA outputs.
- Measurement: lock KPIs before launch (incrementality, CAC, ROAS, LTV) and set holdouts.
- Integration: connect identity, clean rooms, and your ad/CRM stack to avoid silos and rework.
Rollout status
Stagwell has begun a soft introduction with an initial focus on retail. The offering will expand across its network and clients on an opt-in basis over the coming months.
Bottom line for marketers
If you've been waiting for a practical way to query your data in plain English, spin up audiences, and move straight into activation-this is the direction the industry is heading. The winners will be the teams that prepare their data, set tight governance, and pilot high-clarity use cases first.
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