There’s a different energy at Cannes this year. Not just the usual celebration of great storytelling, but a shift toward operational creativity: how brands actually deliver those stories at scale, in real time, and across platforms shaped increasingly by AI.
There are still the two names that we follow and who are defining this moment: #Adobe and #Salesforce.
Adobe showed up big at the Majestic Hotel, flaunting Firefly and strategy.
Highlights include:
✅ LLM Optimizer: A timely response to the AI-driven discovery shift. This tool helps brands optimise how they surface in LLMs, chatbots, and AI-powered browsers. Think SEO for the AI-first world.
✅ GenStudio upgrades: GenAI-powered workflows for ad and video production, integrated with Amazon Ads, Meta, Google CM360, and LinkedIn - streamlining creative-to-media like never before.
✅ Experience Cloud evolution: Adobe’s doubling down on real-time personalisation, layering AI agents across CX orchestration. The goal... dynamic, multi-touch experiences that adapt in milliseconds.
They’re not just backing creativity... they’re industrialising it.
Salesforce took over L’Annex Beach and the conversation around Agentic AI - a step beyond copilots toward full task delegation with human oversight.
Highlights include:
✅ Agentforce: Real AI agents that connect data, content, and execution. The SharkNinja use case showed AI planning, optimising, and delivering personalised journeys, live.
✅ CMO focus: Ariel Kelman (Salesforce CMO) spoke on how Agentic workflows reduce manual marketing tasks, freeing teams to focus on strategy and storytelling.
✅ Emotional B2B storytelling: Salesforce continues pushing for more human, brand-led B2B marketing - a shift many are calling long overdue.
Across the event, there’s less boasting about AI potential, and more focus on usability, scalability, and orchestration. Brands no longer want another tool. They want systems that:
If 2023–24 was about experimenting with AI, 2025 is about operationalising it. #CannesLions2025 made that clear and the platforms that help brands move faster without losing meaning will lead the next era.
#AI #CreativeOps #AgenticAI #GenAI #B2BMarketing #ExperienceDesign
