Omnicom is moving toward a global workforce of roughly 105,000 employees by the end of 2026, about 15,000 fewer than it reported at the end of 2025, as the advertising giant continues restructuring following its acquisition of Interpublic Group (IPG).
The decline would amount to roughly 12.5% of Omnicom’s year-end 2025 workforce of about 120,000. However, the full 15,000 should not be treated as a single round of direct layoffs. CFO Phil Angelastro said the estimate also reflects merger synergies, outsourcing, offshoring and employees leaving as the company disposes of non-core businesses.
Combined workforce could fall 23,200 from 2024 level
The scale of the changes becomes clearer when the workforce is compared with levels before the merger.
At the end of 2024, Omnicom employed approximately 74,900 people and IPG about 53,300, giving the two companies a combined workforce of roughly 128,200.
Omnicom completed its acquisition of IPG on November 26, 2025. By the end of December, the combined company had around 120,000 employees, already about 8,200 below the two groups’ combined year-end 2024 headcount.
If Omnicom reaches approximately 105,000 employees by December 2026, the workforce would be about 23,200 smaller than the combined Omnicom-IPG total at the end of 2024.
Angelastro has described the 105,000 figure as an estimate rather than a precise final number, meaning hiring, disposals and changes in client business could still affect the year-end total.
Duplicate management and non-core operations are being cut
Much of the merger-related reduction is tied to duplicated corporate costs and overlapping regional management. Omnicom is also using outsourcing and offshoring while selling businesses it no longer considers core, with most of those disposals expected to be completed by the end of 2026.
Client-facing employees have so far been relatively protected. Angelastro said the restructuring has had very little impact on people directly servicing accounts, apart from normal staffing changes when agencies win or lose business.
The pressure to simplify large agency groups extends beyond Omnicom. WPP has also reduced its workforce while restructuring its global operations, including efforts to remove duplication and simplify management.
PepsiCo account loss triggers detailed review
Omnicom is dealing with the restructuring while examining another major development: the loss of a significant part of PepsiCo’s global media business.
PepsiCo selected Publicis Groupe as its lead global media partner across more than 200 markets, displacing Omnicom agencies in several important markets where they had longstanding relationships with the advertiser.
Angelastro acknowledged the setback and said Omnicom is conducting a detailed review of the pitch and the events leading to the decision. The company wants to identify where it fell short and determine what should have been done differently.
PepsiCo has not disappeared from Omnicom’s client portfolio. The group continues to work with the company in public relations, creative services and some sports activation assignments.
Management also does not currently expect the media loss to significantly alter its 2027 expectations. Angelastro said new business during the first half of 2026, particularly in integrated media, had remained strong.
PepsiCo loss could remove some client conflicts
The account change may also give Omnicom greater freedom to pursue companies that previously presented competitive conflicts because of its PepsiCo relationship.
Coca-Cola was raised during Angelastro’s discussion with Goldman Sachs analyst Adam Berlin. The CFO did not say Omnicom would pursue Coca-Cola, but said the group was unlikely to be as restricted as it had been previously.
He later clarified that the opportunity applied more broadly to categories in which PepsiCo operates rather than to one particular potential client.
There is also an important distinction for India. PepsiCo’s global consolidation does not represent a new media-agency switch in the Indian market because Publicis Media had already won PepsiCo India’s media mandate in 2022.
Media integration moves faster than advertising
The IPG integration has progressed differently across Omnicom’s businesses. Media has been one of the smoother areas, with Angelastro saying the operations came together quickly and benefited from the greater scale of the combined company.
Integrated media now accounts for just over half of Omnicom’s core revenue. The business moved from high-single-digit organic growth in the first quarter of 2026 to double-digit growth in the second quarter.
The larger media operation is increasingly built around data intelligence, data science, reach and measurement as advertisers demand clearer results from their spending.
Advertising has proved more difficult. Omnicom has made deeper changes there, including eliminating several agency brands. Creative advertising is expected to account for about 15% to 16% of the combined business going forward.
Angelastro rejected the idea that creative agencies face an unavoidable structural growth problem, instead pointing to post-merger execution challenges and shifts in client spending.
AI could add further pressure to agency headcount
Artificial intelligence creates another longer-term workforce question, although Omnicom has not presented AI as the primary reason for the current move toward 105,000 employees.
Angelastro said AI is likely to generate efficiencies that could eventually reduce headcount further, but he gave no timetable or estimate. New client wins could also require hiring and offset some of those reductions.
Similar questions about technology and organisational efficiency are appearing across other large companies. Uber’s 2026 restructuring also involved significant workforce reductions as the company changed its operating structure, although the circumstances are different from Omnicom’s merger-driven integration.
Omnicom is already making AI a central part of its technology strategy. Its official corporate website describes Omni as an AI-driven marketing intelligence platform connecting creativity, media, data and measurement across the organisation.
Agency payment models are beginning to change
The AI shift could affect more than employee numbers. Agencies also face costs for AI systems, agents and token usage, creating a new expense that must eventually be measured and recovered through client agreements.
Angelastro said token costs are not yet material for Omnicom, but the company is already discussing how they should be controlled and passed through commercially.
That could accelerate a move away from traditional arrangements based largely on employee hours and fixed fees toward payment linked more closely to outputs and measurable outcomes.
Flywheel Digital offers an early example. Angelastro said around 80% to 90% of that business already operates on an outcome-based model, where clients can more directly connect what they pay with the results they receive.
105,000 remains an estimate rather than a fixed number
The year-end workforce figure could still move as Omnicom wins or loses accounts, completes disposals and adjusts hiring across the combined organisation.
For employees, the immediate focus is the continuing IPG integration through the end of 2026. For the wider advertising industry, the changes also show how consolidation, AI investment and new client-payment models are reshaping the economics and staffing of global agency groups.
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