CANNES — Artificial intelligence is no longer just a tool for content production—it is reshaping how marketers understand identity, audiences and growth, according to industry leaders at a Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity panel moderated by Dave Morgan, founder and chief executive of Simulmedia.
The session, featuring Rukmini Iyer, corporate vice president at Microsoft, and Alex Steer, global chief data officer at WPP’s Choreograph, explored how AI agents, data workflows and emerging personalization capabilities are transforming marketing.
From ‘agentic internet’ to the ‘full-stack marketer’
Iyer described Cannes conversations as instrumental in formalizing the idea of an “agentic internet.” Instead of being centered on websites, she said, the future web will be powered by AI-driven agents that interact directly with users and brands.
“What will agents do for users? What will agents do for brands?” she asked. “This has kind of gotten more formalized talking to customers here at Cannes for me.”
She added that AI is enabling the rise of what Microsoft executive Yusuf Mehdi has dubbed the “full-stack marketer,” noting, “Today marketers… come up with the creatives that touch and move us, but now you can actually personalize those creatives… AI really helps you scale that up.”
Superpowers for the next generation
For Steer, the focus was on how AI affects newcomers to the advertising industry.
“Some of the most interesting conversations I’ve heard… have been about what AI and particularly AI agents mean for people who are just starting their careers,” he said.
Rather than eliminating entry-level roles, he argued, AI could give them leverage.
“If we do this right, then having access to AI tools and systems and agents should be a superpower for people who are starting to build that turbocharge,” Steer said.
Accelerating workflows and creativity
Both panelists emphasized speed as a defining feature of AI-driven workflows. Iyer cited a regulated-industry client who replicated their legal department’s processes with AI, reducing timelines from two weeks to 20 seconds.
Steer said that automation is freeing agencies from time-consuming data assembly.
“All of that heavy lifting… just stops creativity in its tracks,” he said. “We’re using AI methods to stitch together different types of data… to help people get to the interesting stuff and the good work faster.”
Rethinking data and growth
Legacy data approaches built around rigid ID databases are too limited, Steer said. Instead, AI enables counterintuitive insights by connecting disparate data sources.
“What I love… is that you can find patterns in data that’s of different types that came from different places,” he said. “That surfaces up counterintuitive truths.”
Iyer echoed the need for both breadth and depth, noting how personal interactions with AI tools like Copilot reveal unique consumer journeys, such as her experience driving a Mini.
“We have to be able to tell those shared stories,” she said, “but then when you show me a Mini, it needs to be personal with a dog climbing into the back.”
Guardrails and responsible AI
Iyer also stressed the importance of oversight, pointing to Microsoft’s Responsible AI team and digital safety board.
“All new AI products go through these two processes,” she said, ensuring unintended behaviors are caught before deployment.
What to expect this decade
When asked to imagine five years out, Steer suggested agencies could play an even more direct role in client growth strategies, enabled by fast, decentralized data collaboration. Iyer said large language models would increasingly shift from creative optimization to generating richer insights.
Both panelists agreed that human input remains irreplaceable.
“You sometimes hear people say, do AI agents mean that we don’t need to talk to real people anymore? Absolutely not,” Steer said. “It’s a great way of getting fresh perspective.”
Iyer added a final note of caution: “If agents talk to agents you still have to market to other agents, and we still haven’t figured that piece after. We’ve got to work through that.”
You’re watching Beet.TV coverage from Cannes Lion 2025. For more videos from this series, please visit this page.
