Publicis Expands Working With Cancer With Research, AI

Directed by Kailee McGee, a stage IV cancer survivor and award-winning filmmaker, the campaign features survivors from across industries—from CEOs to frontline employees—sharing how work provided structure, identity, and control during treatment. Participants work at companies such as Walmart, L’Oréal, Pfizer, Barclays, Accenture, and Carrefour.

“Being able to continue to go back to work as much as possible was a big part of my healing,” Accenture CEO Julie Sweet says in the film. Sadoun also recounts his own experience navigating treatment while continuing to lead Publicis Groupe.

Given concerns about AI in sensitive health contexts, Lafond-Dufour said guardrails were non-negotiable. The system does not require logins, does not store personal data, and clears all information at the end of each session. It does not provide medical or legal advice and is built on curated, expert-vetted sources rather than scraping the internet.

“It’s ethical by design,” she said. “It’s private, anonymous, and designed to help people ask the hard questions they might not feel safe asking elsewhere.”

Sadoun said the tool was impossible to build just a few years ago. “We tried,” he said. “The technology wasn’t ready. Now, thanks to how fast AI has evolved, we were able to do it in months.”

A call to action

For Sadoun, success will be measured by whether companies better help people fight cancer. So far, more than 5,000 companies and over 40 million workers globally have pledged to the Working with Cancer Initiative.

‘“Cancer is a fight,” he said. “And companies have a role to play.”

Sadoun said fear is the biggest barrier employees face when it comes to addressing their health in the workplace, with roughly half of people diagnosed with cancer choosing not to disclose it at work. “After you’re scared for your life,” he said, “you become scared for your job.”

That realization, reinforced by thousands of emails Sadoun received after publicly disclosing his own diagnosis in April 2022, helped shape the initiative’s direction.

“People don’t want to be seen as weak. They don’t want to be a burden,” he said. “But surviving cancer often makes people stronger.”

His message to CEOs is direct: sign the pledge.

“Most companies already have the right policies,” Sadoun said. “What’s missing is awareness and trust. We’re here to erase the stigma—nothing more, nothing less.”