LONDON – Global communications firm BCW has launched BCW Navigate, a specialist proposition aimed at helping clients through the complexities of fast-moving developments in artificial intelligence.

The offer, led by a multidisciplinary team of strategists in London and Brussels, will support businesses, brands and organisations on all aspects of using AI across cybersecurity, entertainment and IOT applications, from varying regulatory and policy environments, to ethics and the wider public conversation.

Recent research by BCW’s WPP sister agency Wunderman Thompson found that 77% of businesses in the UK have already adopted some form of artificial intelligence, with sectors including financial and legal services, human resources, retail and hospitality at the forefront of innovation.

After being launched in Europe, BCW Navigate will be rolled out globally. The offer is headed by London-based Harry Stovin-Bradford, a BCW tech public affairs specialist, and Mateusz Rachubka, a technology and digital economy specialist in Brussels.

BCW senior advisor John Higgins, Chair of the Global Digital Foundation, will sit on BCW Navigate’s advisory council, as will WPP’s chief AI officer & CEO of Satalia, Daniel Hulme.

BCW’s Europe and Africa president, Scott Wilson, said: “It’s becoming clear that business leaders in the EU, UK and around the world are actively seeking expert counsel and support in how to best navigate these highly complex regulatory and business issues.

"Our scale and international expertise means we are uniquely positioned to advise clients on how these divergent regulatory regimes interact with one another, and to counsel businesses on how to best prepare for a future where artificial intelligence will be a significant part of their lives as well as the lives of their staff, partners and customers.”

The agency will mark the launch of Navigate with a panel discussion on 28 February in London, moderated by senior adviser John McTernan. Panellists, drawn from politics, the civil service, and top think-tanks, include Chi Onwurah, shadow digital minister in the UK Labour Party; WPP’s global head of data and AI, Di Mayze; the UK Civil Service’s head of service development and innovation, Kerry Sheehan; and Ada Lovelace Institute senior researcher Jenny Brennan.