Havas has announced the launch of AVA, a global artificial intelligence portal aimed at standardizing how generative AI is accessed and used across its agencies and by its clients. Unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, the initiative reflects a broader industry push to integrate AI into core operations while maintaining governance, security and human oversight.
Scheduled to roll out from spring 2026, AVA will serve as a secure, centralised gateway connecting Havas teams worldwide to leading large language models, including OpenAI’s GPT-5, Anthropic’s Claude Opus 4.5 and Google’s Gemini 3. By consolidating access within one platform, Havas aims to help teams move faster from brief to execution, while ensuring compliance with client and regulatory requirements.
The platform builds on Havas’s long-standing “Village” operating model, which brings creative, media, data and technology teams together under a single structure. Executives described AVA as a natural extension of this approach, designed to standardise AI usage across markets without diluting human judgment or creative control.
AVA also sits within Converged.AI, Havas’s group-wide AI framework launched in 2024. The company has committed close to €1 billion toward this transformation, including €600 million invested over the past decade and an additional €400 million planned through 2027, as agencies modernise amid competition from consultancies, platforms and in-house teams.
Speaking at CES, chairman and CEO Yannick Bolloré emphasized that generative AI represents an organizational shift rather than just a productivity layer. Havas plans to train and certify employees globally in responsible AI use, positioning AI literacy as a baseline capability. The goal, Bolloré noted, is to ensure technology amplifies human creativity, cultural insight and strategic thinking-rather than replacing them.
