Big ideas, not big algorithms, will win Cannes

The intersection of human creativity and artificial intelligence took centre stage on day three of the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, where Shantanu Narayen, chair and CEO of Adobe, engaged in a candid conversation with Arthur Sadoun, CEO of Publicis Groupe.

The session unfolded just ahead of Narayen receiving the inaugural 'Creative Champion of the Year' award, introduced by the Cannes Lions to acknowledge individuals or organisations that enable creativity at scale.

Sadoun, whose agency Publicis celebrates its centenary this year, opened the discussion by reflecting on how the nature of creative work has evolved. He reminisced how he had been visiting Cannes for three decades and till a few years ago, things were remarkably differently.

“Earlier, we were looking at five hours of films and then saw the print work. That was work done. We thought creative excellence would look like that. Now, media fragmentation has been complex but the industry needs to have the same level of creativity," he remarked.

But complexity, Sadoun argued, isn’t the problem—complacency is.

“The biggest risk is that we love doing a great piece of work for a single touchpoint that ends up winning an award. If one really needs to do good work for our clients, we need to take the risk and stop doing that. No other industry can use data, creativity and technology like we do,” he said.

Given his bird’s eye view of all things tech as Adobe’s chief, Narayen shared his perspective from the lens of technology. "There is so much creative content being created. At Adobe, we want to unleash people who have creative ideas to express them using technology. With every single new media type, we want to deliver a set of tools to creative people to help them get the best out of them," he stated.

Adobe’s presence at Cannes this year highlights how its technology is being integrated across creative workflows. With more than 25 billion assets created using Adobe Firefly, and 83 of the Fortune 100 using Adobe products, the company claims its solutions are already reshaping marketing and storytelling. Activations on the ground showcase its AI tools at work, from Coca-Cola's Firefly-generated visuals and customisable bottle demos to campaign banners created entirely using Adobe’s image-to-video capabilities.

At Cannes, Adobe showcased its AI tools, including Coca-Cola's Firefly-generated visuals and customisable bottle demos. Image source: Adobe.

Narayen also spoke about how perceptions around devices have shifted, driven by technological innovation. He recalled that when the mobile phone was launched, most thought of it as a consumption device and not a creative device. This perception has changed.

“Now, with AI, the question we are asking ourselves is how can we use it to make our products more accessible and democratise the ability for people to use it,” Narayen pointed out.

Sadoun weighed in with his own views on AI and Publicis' positioning. "A competitor called us an AI company. But with 1,20,000 people and a market cap of $25 billion, we would have been a terrible AI company," he quipped.

He elaborated that when he took the CEO’s role in 2017, Publicis stated how AI will be part of the future and it will enable its people to do more things. “Not only did we see the change, we saw how AI can help the creative industry do a better job. AI is particularly important for us because it connects sources of data with other sources of data. I’m super optimistic about what can be done with AI if we don’t forget that the core of our business is people who can deliver the ideas and look towards creativity for everything we do,” Sadoun emphasised.

The session also revisited an AI-powered creative moment from Publicis that resonated widely. "A couple of years ago, they used AI to personalise messages for thousands. What they did was that so unique and created an emotional connection. You created thousands of videos and the emotional connection AI has is unique," said Narayen, highlighting the agency’s AI-driven holiday greeting initiative.

Sadoun used the example to reinforce the enduring importance of big ideas. "I joined this business 30 years ago for a simple reason. It was an idea of changing the future of companies. We should never forget that it's human creativity that will give that differentiation. We all have a responsibility today that work is awarded not that is used at a single touchpoint. It should be for those pieces of work that impact brands. The ones that are for a single touchpoint will be forgotten by Monday (the week after the festival). As long as we stand for big ideas, we’ll take control of the media landscape."

He also reflected on his own journey with an industry once perceived to be in decline. "When I started, advertising was a declining industry. I thought I’d leave in 10 years. But I have never been so optimistic about it. We need to understand what we are doing for our clients. Clients need to understand success will come from talent. If we stand together as an industry and use tech power with new ideas, this industry can grow and be better."

Narayen, who has consistently advocated for the synergy of art and science in business, brought the conversation back to internal transformation. "It’s about getting a vocab to improve marketing and creativity within the company. We are forgetting we can improve the business of our clients with creativity, tech, data, and accelerate it with AI. As a young kid, the power of the written word appealed to me and my first job was as a journalist. People talk about STEM roles – we talk about STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Technology) at Adobe. The importance of art is important. We want to continue being the company that everyone can look towards and say it helps getting work done easier and faster."

As the conversation wrapped, it became evident that while AI can accelerate workflows and amplify impact, its role is still that of an enabler—not a replacement. Creativity remains the starting point, and in the words of Sadoun, “As long as we stand for big ideas, we’ll take control of the media landscape.”