Publicis Groupe has launched an AI coach to help people living and working with cancer improve their confidence and to support a “recovery-forward culture” in the workplace.
The coach, built by Publicis Sapient, is a private and anonymous chatbot that employees can use to ask questions and get information on key topics — from company policies and benefits for those working with cancer to how to support colleagues going through treatment.
New research from the US-based Memorial Sloan Kettering (MSK) Cancer Centre shows that continuing or returning to work supports cancer recovery.
Almost four in five (79%) of those who worked through treatment in EMEA (France, UK and Germany) said that working helped them cope with their cancer experience, while 66% said workplace support had a positive impact on their recovery.
The debut of the AI coach has been timed to mark World Cancer Day today (4 February), and Publicis has released a campaign film featuring survivors, including Accenture's chief exec Julie Sweet and others from Walmart, L’Oréal and Pfizer. It is accompanied by an out-of-home ad that will run in New York's Times Square.
Arthur Sadoun, the chief executive of Publicis, told Campaign he had found that continuing to work “helps you manage the pain” when he had his own experience of cancer four years ago.
“In cancer treatment, there is, of course, the fear of dying, but there is also a lot of pain, physical pain and psychological pain, that needs to be managed during the process,” he said.
“I can tell you from experience that when you have a pitch or a meeting and you want to do it, the fact that you can put your brain onto something else helps manage the difficulty of the process and the treatment.”
MSK’s study shows evidence of a link between sustained employment, or return to work, after a cancer diagnosis and improved health-related quality of life. Dr Victoria Blinder, who led the review, said workplace conditions can play a role in shaping these outcomes.
Financial necessity is the most commonly cited reason for working during treatment (50% in EMEA and 62% in the US), but many survivors also point to psychological and social factors, including wanting life to feel as normal as possible (44% in EMEA) and a sense of purpose (40% in EMEA).
Sadoun added, “When you get sick and diagnosed with cancer, you move from the world of the strong to the world of the weak, and you lose confidence. People are not in a state of mind to understand the benefits and the support they could get from their organisations.”
The AI coach is part of an ongoing, Publicis-led industry initiative, Working With Cancer, which has a mission to help employees with support in the workplace and find the right information for company benefits and policies.
‘A safe, credible and personalised coach’
The coach draws information from curated, vetted resources from Working With Cancer’s partners, delivering accurate, transparent responses while avoiding the risks associated with open-internet health queries, according to Publicis.
Privacy and anonymity are foundational, with no data retained beyond each session, and the coach has strict boundaries that prevent medical diagnosis.
Nannette Lafond-Dufour, Publicis Groupe’s chief impact officer, said the tool was created from a place that was “consistently safe, credible and yet functioned as a personalised coach”, as opposed to general-purpose AI solutions like ChatGPT, which “scrapes and provides overall information which may not be accurate or applicable to the person asking”.
Users do not log in to use the coach, so no names, email addresses, IP addresses or any device-level data are collected. All data is cleared at the end of the session, leaving no digital footprint.
“It allows people to explore serious topics and ask really hard questions, without the fear that they are leaving a digital footprint, or that that data is going to be held on to by their employer,” Lafond-Dufour explained.
Sadoun spoke of the loneliness during cancer treatment: “When you go through this kind of process, you are very alone. It's an individual fight.”
“Some will benefit from being more in the office, some will benefit from working from home. This is where the AI coach could help; it has to be a tailor-made solution based on your needs and your willingness.”
Working With Cancer was launched by Sadoun and Publicis Groupe three years ago in Davos at the World Economic Forum. The tool is available to all companies signed up to the pledge, which currently includes 5000 companies, covering 40 million people.
After Sadoun announced his cancer diagnosis in 2022, he realised that 50% of people who are diagnosed with cancer don't want to discuss it within their workplace.
“After being scared for their life, when they hear those very tough words, ‘You have cancer’, they were scared for their job,” he said.
“When you get sick, you lose confidence and keep it to yourself because you're afraid to be fired, or you're afraid not to be promoted again, or just look like a burden for the company.”
Sadoun and Working With Cancer are fighting this perception and the lack of understanding around the support available for those going through cancer treatment.
Since launching the foundation, the ambition was to create a digital app to help employees navigate a cancer diagnosis on an individual level, but for technological reasons, it was not possible at first. The tool was made possible by the advancement in generative AI, with the ability to connect data privately.
‘The most important thing we are doing’
Working With Cancer has launched a new, global campaign, with a hero film created by Publicis Conseil, to encourage more companies to sign the pledge.
Directed by Kailee McGee, a stage IV cancer survivor and filmmaker, the seven-minute film features survivors from Walmart, L’Oréal, Pfizer, Barclays, Accenture and Carrefour, sharing how working helped them maintain normalcy and control during treatment.
$100 million in media space was donated by media partners, including Disney, Google and YouTube, Zeta Global, TikTok, NBCUniversal, Paramount, iHeartMedia, Westwood One, Clear Channel Outdoor, Captivate, Screenvision and NCM.
The campaign explains that employers are not peripheral to the cancer experience, but can be part of recovery, dignity and quality of life.
In recognition of World Cancer Day, there is a Times Square out-of-home ad featuring survivors photographed by Sandro Miller, a portrait photographer and cancer survivor.
Publicis Groupe reported a record profit margin in its Q4 results this week. However, Sadoun said the results were “way less important” than Working With Cancer. “This is the most important thing we are doing, and definitely the most important thing for me.”
Sadoun added, “When you are a marketing company like ours, what we do can truly have an impact on people's lives, materially, because it is about understanding human behaviour.
“It's about the creativity that can change perception. It's about the network that we can use to create this snowball effect.”
Source: Campaign UK
