The Future 100 at Cannes: Trust, talent, and truth in advertising’s AI era

Future 100 | Cannes Lions 2026

Even among the hustle, bustle, and heat of Cannes Lions, the Future 100 Club finds time for a meeting of minds. Marsha Jackson, project director at the Conscious Advertising Network, stepped aboard the Samsung Ads yacht with three industry leaders to discuss the pros, cons, and unknowns of AI in advertising, starting with how the technology affects trust.

From brand to agency to consumer, AI transparency builds trust

Chris Stephenson, global head of strategic engagement at Omnicom Media, believes there are three levels for brands to leverage AI without compromising consumer trust.

First, their house has to be in order, which means organising their tech stack and data so it is machine-readable. This ensures that any AI-driven insights or efficiencies do not stray from a core source of truth.

Secondly, brands should be mindful of how they are portrayed in consumer-facing AI interfaces. “Brands have got to make sure they’re being represented in the best possible way, so that consumers can trust what they’re seeing,” said Stephenson. “And that’s a conversation between brands and the platforms.”

At the third level is how brands utilise AI in media. Stephenson was interested by the number of shortlisted campaigns at Cannes Lions that used AI to enable innovative new ways of connecting with consumers, especially when the technology was integral to its design and fully disclosed:

Transparently and authentically communicating what you’ve done [with AI] and why you’ve done it builds trust at the brand level.”

Patrick Ryan, founder and CEO of the 300 Consultancy, added that there was another level before brand-to-consumer, and that’s agency-to-brand.

“Agencies need to be very transparent in what they’re giving to clients,” said Ryan. “Because ultimately, it’s the client’s brand that’s going out there. An agency can’t say, ‘Yes, we’ve got governance in place, don’t worry about it.’ They’ve got to be super clear on what’s been created by AI and what’s been created by humans, so the client can make the decision.”

“Transparency only works if it’s visible, if people understand it, and it’s actionable,” said Lauren Barnett, head of UK sales at Samsung Ads, who would prefer if AI disclosures covered both the media consumers see and how their data is used by AI models to determine whether they see it in the first place. However, without any common AI disclosure frameworks, it’s up to brands to set their level of transparency.

“Do you need independent auditors across the industry looking at AI? Should creatives that have been influenced or enhanced by AI have a content label that says this was AI-generated?” Barnet asked, noting how difficult it had become to identify AI-generated content on social media.

Brands need to create a new entry level for talent displaced by AI

Cannes may have been a showcase for AI-driven innovation, but the panel did not shy away from the human cost paid for progress.

“The reality is that AI is replacing a lot of those entry-level roles for those routine tasks that we used to get graduates to do,” said Barnett, who warned against the downstream effects of losing a steady supply of new talent entering the industry, the kind who would usually spark fresh ideas that drove innovation within brands.

“More worrying than that is there’s going to be a big gap in the job market as our current leaders start to retire and people move up. Who’s going to be stepping up and filling that?” Barnett asked. “There is a responsibility among all of us as brands and employers to keep that in mind and make sure that AI is upskilling our workforces, not culling them.”

“AI isn’t preventing people from being hired,” Stephenson added. “AI isn’t doing that; we’re doing that. AI isn’t deciding to cut hiring or change policies. People are doing it. So the people who make decisions need to think really long and hard about those decisions and the impact that they’re having.”

“I don’t think there’s a job in the world that AI can do right now,” said Stephenson, who explained that AI may be able to execute individual tasks effectively, but coordinating the hundreds of tasks that comprise a complete campaign will remain a human responsibility “for a very long time”.

Ryan thought it was a shame that AI is so often treated as a pure cost-saving and efficiency play, rather than an opportunity to push quality even further. He is confident that there will be a significant advantage gained by the brave brands who say, “Screw the efficiency, I’ll pay the same-ish amount of money… but I’m going to get a better output when the rest of the world become anodyne.”

“But unfortunately,” Ryan conceded, “the cost pressure is going the wrong way.”

Distinctive campaigns can stand out from the “infinite average”

The panel continued to discuss the balance between quality and efficiency in AI in advertising and how it can affect consumer perceptions of a brand.

Barnet felt that Coca-Cola seemed to ignore consumer feedback by doubling down on an AI-generated version of the iconic ‘Holidays Are Coming’ advert for a second year.

“Particularly at Christmas, consumers want messaging that draws on their memories and their personal anecdotes and experiences. AI is never going to do that. You need that human touch and connection to drive that emotional connection with the brand.”

As with the discussion on employment, Stephenson placed the blame not on AI, but the people who use it. More specifically, the enemy is not AI, but the “infinite average” it can create.

“Everything becomes average, and there’s an infinite amount of it. It’s just exhausting. But the opportunity for brands that want to make human things and communicate in authentic, distinctive ways has never been greater. There’s content produced by AI that only AIs will ever see. That is the world that is coming so quickly down the tracks to us.”

“My concern comes back to kids,” said Ryan, who shared how often he would have to correct his own children on the total fabrications they had encountered online.

“Everything comes to them through these,” Ryan pointed to his phone. “Most of it through social media platforms. They’ve removed much of the governance they used to have, so our kids are being told stuff that’s blatantly untrue to serve a purpose, whatever that purpose may be. At the moment, I don’t think [AI is] strengthening [the information ecosystem] at all.”

“It feels like, at this moment in time, [AI is] simply a shared responsibility that no one really owns,” said Jackson, who gave the panel’s final word. “Regulators, platforms, advertisers, everybody might have a section of that where they might go, ‘We should consider that.’ But there’s no overall legislature or no overall governing set of policies that tell us, this is how we need to make sure information reaches our consumers in the right way, and to make sure that it comes with integrity.”

The Future 100 Club unites a diverse range of professionals from all corners of the media realm. Setting itself apart from other groups or lists of emerging talents, there are no age, industry tenure, or job title restrictions. Click here to learn more.