In today’s Digest, we discuss Omnicom turning to outcome-based pricing amid workforce cuts, Anthropic forecasting its second straight quarter of profit, and Alipay unveiling a wallet agent for AI payments.

Omnicom eyes new pricing model

Omnicom is looking to shift further towards outcome-based pricing as it moves to cut 15,000 jobs and reduce its workforce to 105,000 this year. Speaking at a Goldman Sachs investor conference, CFO Phil Angelastro said the move reflects a broader shift away from traditional hourly and fixed-fee models, as the group looks to grow revenue while reducing its reliance on headcount. He said the job cuts have had limited impact on client-facing roles, with most workforce changes linked to agencies winning or losing individual accounts rather than broad-based reductions.

Angelastro pointed to Omnicom's ecommerce unit, Flywheel Digital, as an example of the model already gaining traction. Between 80% and 90% of Flywheel's work is priced according to results rather than hours, he said. Still, Angelastro was careful not to oversell how fast or evenly that change will spread. The shift, he said, will unfold gradually rather than all at once, and won't apply uniformly. 

Anthropic forecasts second straight quarter of profit

Anthropic is signaling financial strength as it edges closer to a public listing. The company has told a small group of shareholders it expects positive adjusted operating income for a second consecutive quarter. Reuters said it could not independently verify the report, and Anthropic did not respond to a request for comment outside business hours.

Anthropic's gross margins sit above 80%, though that figure is calculated before accounting for revenue shared with distribution partners and before the cost of training new models. Anthropic's first quarter of adjusted profitability reportedly came between April and June, when revenue surged roughly fourteenfold year-over-year to more than USD$11.5bn (£8.63bn), pushing annualised revenue to around USD$65bn (£48.75bn) by the end of July.

Alipay unveils wallet agent for AI payments

Alipay is expanding further into the machinery of AI-driven commerce. The company said that it will launch an AI wallet agent to help users manage AI-initiated transactions, part of a broader upgrade to its payment infrastructure. The update adds three new capabilities under Alipay's "AI Collect" umbrella Vibe Pay, Skill Pay and Machine Pay aimed at AI app creation, monetising digital skills, and machine-to-machine connections respectively. 

Together, they push Alipay beyond simply processing payments and toward actively managing how AI systems transact on users' behalf.