The advertising industry parties in Cannes, with AI as its new plus-one

After several years of small experiments with AI and big anxieties over its impact, advertising executives got with the program at this week’s Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, the ad industry’s annual five-day gathering on the French Riviera.

Almost every company that took over a swanky beach club, hosted guests in a villa or bought its staff $5,000 festival passes told an enthusiastic story about artificial intelligence. Raging against the machine was firmly out. Any remaining rank-and-file worries about job losses were mostly voiced far from official events.

“We’ve moved beyond the promise and the fear to the practical application," said Don McGuire, chief marketing officer at chip maker Qualcomm, adding that the company is saving 2,400 hours a month by using an AI agent-building tool called Writer. “People are talking about using it in different contexts. It’s no longer, ‘Well, it could do this, or could do that.’ "

Two years ago, at the first Cannes Lions since the debut of ChatGPT announced AI’s new potential, ad agency Monks co-founder Wesley ter Haar set up in a small apartment. Cassandra-like, he told visitors that AI was about to upend ad creation and employment. Executives at other companies in Cannes that year described their trials with the technology but emphasized that only humans can develop the emotional insights that steer ad campaigns.

This time the idea of AI-driven industry transformation was mainstream, even if leaders still expressed confidence about humans’ continued role.

“Obviously the world of business, and the world at large, is being profoundly disrupted as we speak, and the impact on jobs is already being felt," said Marisa Thalberg, the chief customer and marketing officer at Catalyst Brands, the company formed by the merger of Brooks Brothers-owner SPARC Group and JCPenney. “My optimism comes from knowing how much creativity is—and will remain—so fundamentally and uniquely human, even if the ways we harness and express it continue to change."

Instagram and Facebook owner Meta Platforms used the festival to unveil a host of new AI-based products designed to help advertisers make ads as quickly and simply as possible, feasibly without the need for an agency. Executives at the company repeatedly said the tools weren’t designed to replace agencies, however—just to speed up their work and help smaller businesses that can’t afford agencies.

Marketers in Cannes even put concerns such as President Trump’s trade war and tightening consumer budgets on the back burner in favor of talking about AI.

“I didn’t have one single conversation about tariffs," said Yannick Bolloré, the chairman and chief executive officer of French advertising holding company Havas.

The guest list-only “cafe" run by Havas on the grounds of the Mondrian Hotel used AI to turn guests into 3-D characters in a movie using only a photo. The company last year said it would invest 400 million euros, or more than $429 million at the time, in AI development over the course of four years, a commitment similar to those made by rival holding companies. Now Bolloré is asking that his staff refer to AI agents as “teammates."

“Those agents will be fully part of the Havas family," Bolloré said. “In terms of employees we will find a lot of efficiencies, but our bet is that we will manage more revenue with the same amount of people."

But reality isn’t always close at hand during Cannes, a 13,000-person conference where $1,355 magnums of Dom Pérignon are regularly ordered to business tables at lunch, and executives’ public displays of affection for AI began to wear thin with some. Lower-ranking attendees darkly joked at post-programming parties that they’d be replaced by their artificial counterparts before the next festival.

And research published Monday raised some red flags for agencies, most of which have been racing to build up their AI arsenal. Agency trade association the 4As and consulting firm Forrester found that although 75% of agencies are using the technology—up from 61% last year—75% of those using it are also funding it directly without passing on the costs to clients, up from 41% in 2024.

“That is deeply concerning," said Jay Pattisall, principal analyst at Forrester, who wrote in the report that “agencies are backsliding into antiquated commercial models that led to the commoditization and lack of transparency associated with marketing services."

The strongest pushback to the AI overload at Cannes came from the celebrities and social-media content creators who now flood Cannes along with traditional ad players and tech companies. Actors Josh Duhamel, Reese Witherspoon, JB Smoove and others touted their own creative companies but also made a case for the employment of Hollywood talent in the ad industry.

Advertising benefits from emotional connections that actors, directors and scriptwriters know how to provide, Smoove said.

“We’re talking about mastering the moment," Smoove said. “You meet somebody that you haven’t seen in years and they tell you a funny joke? AI can’t do that."