As AI continues its stampede through ad land, the technology has arrived at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, where it is commanding significant attention in the form of panels, behind-the-scenes dealmaking, out-of-home advertising and more.

Some of the biggest players in marketing, from Google to Publicis to newcomer OpenAI, are positioning the technology front and center, so much so that one executive told Ad Age they were annoyed by its taking priority over other topics, such as creativity and sustainability. 

In fact, five agency executives have told Ad Age that AI panels have overshadowed the rest of the festival’s content.

AI, however, seems to be only getting more popular, which makes this year’s festival a pivotal moment in its integration with the ad industry. Whether you’re at the office, at home or on the Croisette, here are some of the major ways in which AI is showing up at the festival.

Deal-making

Omnicom announced a partnership with Google to incorporate the tech company’s AI models into Omni, its internal marketing and data platform. The global media and marketing company is touting the partnership as the first commercial use of Google’s AI tech.

Omnicom will leverage two AI platforms—Imagen, a text-to-image model similar to OpenAI’s DALL-E, and PaLM 2, a large language model for text. The integrations are intended to allow Omnicom’s clients to create bespoke content by pairing their data with that of Omnicom and letting the AI go to work. 

Read more: Google and Omnicom strike generative AI deal

Meanwhile, OpenAI, the developer behind ChatGPT, has commanded major attention at Cannes as it looks to grow its footprint across industries. The company held a panel with Goodby Silverstein & Partners. During the discussion, Brad Lightcap, OpenAI’s chief operating officer discussed how AI will affect jobs.

“We'll have to adapt our workflow and use it and there may be things that we spend our time on today that we don't spend as much time on in the future,” Lightcap said. “But that being said, I will make you a bet, that If I come back here in five years this industry will be busier than ever.”

Meta, too, has been promoting its AI capabilities through its presence on the beach. The tech company is hosting numerous client meetings on the topic of how AI can support the creative process, Alvin Bowles, Meta’s VP of global business group, told Ad Age.

To court new brands, Meta announced at Cannes the development of its AI assistants, which were promoted as a way for businesses to talk with customers and creators to talk with fans. An exact timeline for the product’s release was not disclosed. 

Read more: Meta’s AI pitch at Cannes includes chatbots

OOH ads

AI is fueling creativity behind advertisements, so it was no surprise that the technology was positioned front and center in out-of-home ads around the Croisette.

Publicis launched a campaign that references the criticism it received upon diving into AI back in 2017, when the company announced that it would be saving money in order to build out its AI management tool Marcel. The ads, scattered around Cannes, depict how people reacted at the time, such as an executive laughing in mockery and an analyst grimacing in confusion. 

The punch line, of course, is that now everyone is diving into AI. And perhaps as a nod to the new ways in which people are leveraging the technology, Publicis used AI-generated images to fuel the creative behind the campaign.

Performance marketing company MNTN also has a cheeky ad, which states “MNTN needed vowels, so we added AI.” The banner takes up nearly half of an entire face of a building in Cannes, and is likely a reference to MNTN’s generative AI-powered video editing platform, which the company rolled out earlier this month. 

AI in the winner’s box

In addition to being out in public for the industry to see, AI-related ads have made it into the winner’s box. 

Dentsu Creative’s “Scrolling Therapy” app, which uses AI to help people with Parkinson’s disease to perform beneficial facial exercises, won the Pharma Grand Prix award. The effort was developed with Brazilian pharmaceutical company Eurofarma.

Meanwhile, Michelob Ultra and FCB New York won the Entertainment for Sport Grand Prix for its “Dreamcaster” initiative. The project blended generative AI and haptic technology to help Cameron Black, who is blind, provide TV commentary for a basketball game. The AI translated basketball data into game information that was then delivered to Black in Braille. 

Skepticism

Despite the outsized presence that AI has had at Cannes, some guests are throwing cold water on the actual value it has brought to the festival. One executive said they were “disappointed” by the number of panels on AI relative to creativity, and how topics like sustainability and diversity appeared to have taken a “backseat” on the mainstage.

By the third day of Cannes, panel speakers were joking about how much AI has been discussed during the week, often comparing it to the Web3 hype from last year. However, all executives Ad Age spoke to for this story agreed that AI has more potential than Web3 to impact businesses.

When talking about the basics of being a good chief marketing officer, such as how to balance research with creativity and following insights, Fernando Machado, currently CMO at plant-based food maker NotCo, said:

“None of the things I'm saying here is going to change with AI. Maybe performance marketing a little bit. But doing those things really well, I think, can get you really far. I think that the people who get really distracted with the new shiny bright objects, they end up not doing the basics … No one is talking about the Metaverse and NFTs anymore. If you came here last year, everyone was talking about that, now everyone's talking about AI. God knows what they'll be talking next year.”

That said, NotCo is currently using generative AI to develop imagery for its marketing campaigns.