Four Conversations About the Future of Growth at Cannes Lions

Walking into Cannes Lions this year, I expected every conversation to revolve around AI. In one sense, it did.

Whether I was listening to Tiffany Rolfe and Nick Pringle at R/GA, Carla Hassan at JPMorgan Chase, Patrick O’Keefe at e.l.f. Beauty, Mark Kirkham at PepsiCo, leaders from McLaren Racing, Mars, SharkNinja, or the CMO Accelerator, AI found its way into nearly every session. But by the end of the week, I realized the technology itself wasn’t the most interesting part of the conversation.

What stood out was how consistently leaders from completely different industries were asking the same question: How do brands create growth in a world where AI is changing not only how organizations work, but how consumers discover, evaluate and engage with brands?

That shift felt remarkably consistent with what we’re seeing in our own work at Prophet and our clients. As AI becomes embedded in both enterprise operations and everyday consumer behavior, competitive advantage isn’t just about adopting new technology. It’s about rethinking how brands earn relevance, build trust and create value in an AI-powered world.

Across four days, four themes kept surfacing.

1. Judgment is becoming a competitive advantage.

One of the biggest surprises wasn’t how enthusiastic marketers were about AI. It was how disciplined they were about its limitations. At R/GA, Tiffany Rolfe and Nick Pringle challenged the industry’s fixation on outputs. As AI makes execution faster and more accessible, they argued that judgment, taste and strategic thinking become even more valuable. One line that stayed with me was their challenge to move from “making things” to “making things that make things.”

That same tension surfaced during the CMO Accelerator, where one participant observed that AI allows good marketers to produce mediocre work much faster. The challenge isn’t creating more. It’s maintaining the standards, curiosity and conviction to create work that is genuinely distinctive.

The conversation has clearly evolved. The question is no longer whether AI can generate content. It’s how organizations use AI to make better decisions, uncover better opportunities and create better work.

2. Relevance is replacing reach.

If there was one word I heard repeatedly throughout the week, it was relevance. Mars captured it perfectly: “You cannot buy relevance. You have to earn relevance.” The same idea surfaced in very different ways across the festival. Mark Kirkham, CMO of PepsiCo Beverages, argued that brands don’t create culture; they earn the right to participate in it. McLaren Racing shared how it has expanded Formula 1 beyond race day, creating opportunities for fans to engage through entertainment, fashion and partnerships. Even CeraVe’s activation around the NBA Finals succeeded because it felt native to a cultural moment people already cared about rather than interrupting it.

That feels especially relevant as consumers increasingly discover brands through AI-powered search, creator recommendations and algorithmic discovery. Visibility alone won’t create growth. Brands need to be relevant enough to be surfaced, trusted and ultimately chosen.

3. Creators are becoming strategic growth partners.

One of the biggest stories at Cannes wasn’t simply that creators were literally everywhere. It was that their role had fundamentally changed. Conversations with creators Josh Richards and Johnny Harris, Kevin Durant and Rich Kleiman of Boardroom, alongside announcements from platforms including YouTube, TikTok and Amazon, reflected a broader shift. Creators are no longer being viewed simply as media channels or campaign extensions. They’re increasingly becoming long-term partners in building communities, trust and brand ecosystems.

That has meaningful implications for CMOs. As the customer journey becomes more distributed, brands are no longer the sole authors of their story. Growth increasingly depends on designing systems where creators, employees, customers and communities actively participate in building the brand alongside the organization itself.

4. AI is accelerating the need for stronger foundations.

Perhaps the most unexpected conversations all week weren’t about technology at all. They were about organizational design. At Jim Stengel’s final CMO Accelerator, discussions focused less on AI tools than on talent, workflows, governance and operating models. One speaker made a point that echoed throughout the week: transformation doesn’t begin with technology. It begins with people, ways of working and how decisions get made.

That observation helped connect many of the conversations I’d heard throughout Cannes. AI isn’t replacing the fundamentals of growth. If anything, it’s reinforcing them. As more content is created by AI, agencies, creators and internal teams, the need for a clear brand strategy becomes even more important. As consumer journeys become more fragmented, understanding what your brand stands for becomes the anchor that keeps every touchpoint aligned. In many ways, AI isn’t creating entirely new challenges. It’s exposing the importance of solving long-standing ones.