• by Hannah Mirza , Op-Ed Contributor, 6 hours ago

Beyond the awards and networking, the ongoing impact of AI was the strong undercurrent at last week’s Cannes Lions. 

That makes sense because the tools behind a Grand Prix winner like Google's Project Genie -- which enables people to build an AI-generated world from a text prompt or photo -- will quickly become the standard creative production kit for everyone.

But while there were lots of examples of AI playing creative director, there was also a deeper (and long-overdue) debate along the beach: who owns and who controls the competitive advantage that this new technology brings.

AI is now a fact of life for our industry. We have more messages powered by data, creative personalization, and media-buying agents that operate within human-set guardrails.

This is a dramatic change that also means the learnings are being gained not just by the agency teams that brands work with, but also by the systems they use. For many clients, this can mean that the competitive advantage sits with the tools and systems their agencies own.

This is because the more an agency builds and trains AI systems using a brand’s data -- its creative assets, audience signals, campaign history -- the harder it becomes for that brand to leave.

The institutional knowledge that once lived in people now lives in the models and tools that belong to the agency. The switching cost is rising quietly, month by month. 

What once looked like future risks -- outsourced IP and diminished negotiating power -- have already become a reality for many advertisers. Post-Cannes, every CMO should be asking themselves, “Who owns those learnings and if I want to leave does that mean I have to start all over again?”

We have been here before with data and programmatic, however, and smart advertisers know they need greater control -- whether that would be by having their own first-party data or in-house control of strategy. 

The smartest CMOs are now working to identify where they need to grab hold of the strategic levers that drive their business because what they buy and what they own will be very different in an AI-powered future.

Fundamentally, advertisers don’t like having their options restricted in a rapidly changing world, and agencies treating proprietary AI ecosystems as a method of client retention are likely to be disappointed.

Paradigm Shift

We are at a tipping point in the way brands plan and execute marketing activity thanks to AI, with three fundamental changes all taking place at once -- changes that are forcing advertisers to seriously rethink where and how they work with agencies.

First, content supply chains are being rebuilt around AI, transforming the economics of asset creation, adaptation and localization.

AI is reshaping creative strategy, brand storytelling and performance marketing, and smart brands are building their own capability rather than waiting for agencies to do it for them.

Secondly, as part of this trend, the in-house model is being reborn again. This time, it’s not about headcount, but about owning the intelligence layer: the data, the tooling, the logic and the governance.

Agencies and consultancies are retained for what the brand’s owned capability cannot or should not do. 

Finally, media is moving closer to the machine. With transparency and confidence in agency trading models under increasing scrutiny, forward-thinking brands are seeking to build direct relationships, owned data and genuine audience trust.

All three changes require brands to take greater ownership of their marketing. When you own the intelligence layer, you are not starting from scratch every time an agency relationship ends. You are building something that belongs to the brand and adds value to the business.

It’s a process that is making brands more alert to the risks that can come with AI tools, however rich the promise. So as they seek to rewire fundamental operating models, hard questions are also being asked about dependence and control on AI.

The mistakes that were made with data and programmatic will not happen with AI. Brands will be looking for partners with open architecture, protocols for transferring AI learnings and ownership of what works and what does not.

The future is certainly AI powered, but it also needs to be agency agnostic for advertisers.

Great work will help the best agencies build long-term relationships with advertisers, but even the best AI tools won’t keep brands at agencies that don’t deliver.