AI was an uncontroversial hot topic among over 15,000 attendees at this year’s five-day Cannes Lions International Creativity Festival.
In public, CMOS and agency chiefs took a bright tone and placed technology as a tool to recharge human creativity, rather than replacing it.
But as the temperature in the Riviera rises, tensions and several industry executives have told ADWeek about what AI means for creative agencies, media purchases, search, industry employment and established business models.
During the Palais stage, optimism was in the air. Apple’s Tor Myhren spoke to the audience during a keynote speech that rallies for human creativity. Mustafa Suleyman of Microsoft spoke to former SNAP CCO Colleen DeCourcy about the creative opportunities for AI. Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen chatted with Publicis Groupe CEO Arthur Sadoun about how AI empowers the creative team.
We’ve shown off new generation AI tools with shiny shiny along Croisette, including Meta, Google, and Adobe.
S4 Capital’s industry veteran and founder Martin Sorrell ir told Adweek that the mood in Cannes was “not good,” and that the 2025 festival marked the end of the current “golden era” of advertising. “There’s been a huge change,” he added.
Sorrell described the impact of AI on the traditional advertising industry as “existent,” saying executives from major advertising platforms are “very worried” about the impact of AI on advertising as well as on industry employment during dinner.
In May, Forrester reported that the US advertising industry would lose 7.5% of agency jobs (approximately 32,000 roles) against automation by 2030.
“Is the big theme this week about AI going to overturn the industry? I’m really worried,” added Sorrel.
Michael Ruby, president and chief creative officer of Indie Agency Park & Battery, wondered at the “bold optimism” around AI, who was “stubbornly parrot” on stage. But behind the locked room he said the tension was obvious.
“The discomfort is painfully obvious,” Ruby said. “We’re evolving in the industry in 25 years, so we have to get through it quickly.”
Agents are facing a “Kodak moment”
David Jones, founder and CEO of BrandTech Group, said the advertising industry is facing a “Kodak moment.” He didn’t etch the words: “If you’re a creative agent, you’re screwed.”
Sorrell observed that art director and copywriting work is under the most pressure, as new tools like Google’s VEO 3 generate faster output.
Monks Agency of S4 has developed commercials created entirely by Gen AI for PUMA and other clients. I currently live in the market. Such projects can be produced for millions of dollars alone.
According to Jones, BrandTech has produced over 2 million AI ads since 2018 across 5,000 brands, including 235,000 in just a quarter. Jones said these ads were produced by three of the world’s top 10 advertisers faster than 62%, 55% cheaper, and 40% better ROI.
“You can make TV commercials while we sit down and talk. They’re pretty good,” Jones said. “Our best creative people can do amazing things.”
Jones believes that AI is the most narrower in creative agencies, but Sorrel points to the impact on media buyers. The job of a media buyer is saying, “It’s all done by algorithms.”
The S4 chief added that the rise in AI coincides with the agency’s mega consolidation, which will “lose employment,” but the full impact “is not a hit yet.”
“There will be so many evacuations,” Jones agreed, predicting that the long-term agency will slim down from hundreds of thousands of staff to tens of thousands.
Agents also need to develop new pricing models in the AI world. In the AI world, clients are demanding cost-saving and personalising at scale. If a client demands work, time and material charging is done faster and faster with fewer people, no longer profitable.
For example, some clients pay the monks with FTE-based retainers, but also for asset use. Such models will become more common in the future, Sorrell said.
That shift is logical for agency leaders, but often a challenging sell for sourcing executives accustomed to time-based billing, Sorrell said. “That’s really difficult because the agency’s rate base is effectively decreasing.”
But that’s not all a downside. Jones believes, “AI will be the way that within five years, 100% of all content is generated,” but he says, “If it’s the best (using AI), you’ll be in a business that’s really growing really fast.”
“There’s an opportunity, but that’s going to mean a big change,” Sorrell said. We predicted a “new golden age.”
Adweek, a senior marketer who joked about Croisette, bumped into an ad executive who was “depressed” about the impact of AI.
CMOS is leaning carefully
Holding the strings of the wallet, the CMO will ultimately shape what this next step of AI adoption will look like.
However, according to Bain’s partner Philip Dowling, there is still “uneven maturation” and “global expansion” between brands investing in technology and brands struggling to keep up.
Along the Croisette, the CMO was at various stages of the experiment. Many were bullish than their agents, but still wisely about the details, sharing softer internal examples of AI throughout the week.
Natalia Ball, Global Chief Growth Director at Mars Pet Nutrition, told Adweek: 12 months after the industry was last convened in Cannes, Mars PetCare is already using AI to create a massive, smarter media plan. Additionally, some campaigns use AI. One helped seduce a dog to dress its dog or convince pet owners to persuade their partners to bring their furry friends home through smooth videos.
Claudine Cheever, Amazon’s Vice President of Global Brands and Marketing, has revealed on the stage that using the platform’s AI assistant Amazon Q to develop bots that reflect her writing style and streamline the creation of “more Amazon” marketing documents.
Netflix is carefully exploring the technology within its marketing department. CMO Marian Lee told Adweek at a press event that her team is applying for AI to support tasks such as employee reviews. We also recently used Meta’s AI to localize our subtitle Bridgerton campaign across the market.
“We’re not using it creatively right now,” Lee said. “When it comes to creative output, it’s not there yet. But that doesn’t mean that we’re ignoring it, because it’s pretty incredible how much it changes each week.”
Hilton CMO Mark Weinstein called AI “a great equalizer for creatives” and dismantled barriers previously imposed by budgets. At this point, Gen AI is helping Weinstein’s team handle daily tasks such as reviewing photos and writing 1.3 million hotel rooms copies.
Elsewhere, McLaren Racing CMO Louise McEwen uses AI to manage a huge amount of content. “AI helps you do heavy lifting behind the scenes,” she said.
Meena Anvary, head of marketing for the Banana Republic, described the team’s conversation on AI, focusing on “human-centered” applications as “the face of the future.” The apparel brand is still working out what this looks like as parent company Gap Inc. solidifies its own AI blueprint.
There’s not just one gap. “The biggest question we get from our clients is how can we restructure our organization and adopt AI on a large scale?” Bane’s Dowling said.
Accenture Song’s next CEO, Ndidi Oteh, said the client is “excited” with AI, but lacks the data infrastructure to implement it. Almost 30% (30%) of Song’s client engagement incorporates AI today, the number she is expected to grow.
Agents and consultants have updated Cannes programming to meet clients’ appetites for AI. Publicis hosted CMO closed door sessions on AI Tech, and Medialink held an invitation-only forum on AI impact. Havas declared at a press conference that he was “an AI-led organization fueled by human ingenuity,” and WPP signed a deal with Tiktok, bringing more AI tools to its clients.
Two Cannes Stories
Marketers and agencies look to the future, but the gap between public optimism and private insecurity is hard to ignore.
Few people captured the tension more than the legendary Gray anatomy and Bridgeton showrunner Shonda Rymes. He told me why human creativity is still important on the Netflix rooftop.
“I’m still rog-absorbed enough to believe that a person’s creativity and imagination are the most important elements of storytelling.”
If the winner of this year’s Cannes Lions Grand Prix was any indication, the ad creative is not yet ready to give the human supervision to the machine.
Amidst these earthquake changes, the creatives in the ads are primarily buried in the sand, Jones said. They have “big anxiety” about what’s going forward, as “they don’t use the tools.”
“Some out of fear, some out of ignorance, and (creative) really thinks that it’s impossible for AI to be more creative than humans,” he said. “It’s not a question of whether it will happen. When will it be?”
Corrected 6/25 10:04am ET: In an earlier version of this story, Hilton has 13 million hotel rooms. The story has been updated to reflect that Hilton has 1.3 million hotel rooms.
