Havas introduces LLM tool Ava, the ‘heart of Havas,’ at CES

Havas launched Ava, a global large language model (LLM) that provides safe access to various advanced AI models, unifying them into one portal.

According to a statement released by the holding company, connecting users to models such as Gemini 3, GPT-5 and Claude Opus allows teams to choose which AI they’d prefer to work with.

Ava was revealed at CES by Havas chairman and CEO Yannick Bolloré’s keynote address. He emphasised that at the holding company, AI amplifies, not replaces, human creativity.

“We’re building an AI-driven, human-powered future where innovation and imagination work hand-in-hand to grow our clients’ brands in an increasingly complex world,” Bolloré continued. “Ava is a catalyst for reinventing collaboration and creativity.”

To show off its capabilities, Bolloré and moderator Jim Stengel, president and CEO of The Jim Stengel Company, called up a volunteer from the packed audience in C Space, the trade show’s designated area for the marketers in attendance, to participate in a “life-changing” experience through Ava. The end result revealed at the conclusion of the keynote was an AI-generated movie trailer featuring the volunteer as the star of a gritty, thrilling Western film. The realistic depiction of the volunteer in the movie generated excited reactions from the audience while simultaneously showing off Ava capabilities in real time.

The name “Ava” is taken from the “heart of Havas itself” (in both a literal and metaphorical sense), according to the statement, reflecting the holding company’s “global connectedness.”

The statement also mentioned that Ava will begin its release this spring, over time being introduced to Havas’ client partnerships worldwide. Ava is only one part of Havas’ continued momentum with Converged.AI, as the holding company announced yesterday its partnership with software company Akkio to accelerate the agentic capabilities of the operating system.

The launch of Havas’ Ava follows recent CES announcements made by other holding companies regarding new or updated operating platforms: Stagwell’s agentic operating system, The Machine, WPP’s Agent Hub for its AI marketing platform, WPP Open and Omnicom’s newest edition of its operating system Omni.