Every year, as adland descends on the south of France for Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, there are a few topics that dominate the conversation. This year’s two hottest topics—creators and AI—didn’t deviate much from 2023, but the way each showed up on the Croisette and at the Palais did.
The ad industry’s AI use hits a high point: A majority (91%) of agencies implement the tech while the workforce grows uneasy about job security.
Y Combinator and 140 AI startups oppose California’s Senate Bill 1047, fearing its restrictions will stifle innovation and harm talent retention.
Formula One and Amazon strike an AI partnership: Amazon’s AI deal with the NFL has attracted interest from F1, and its streaming rights will soon be up for grabs.
Although its servers need a lot of energy and water to operate, Microsoft is putting its focus on AI innovation rather than subsea research.
“I wish more brands would take more small swings to see what kinds of new experiences, products, interactions they can create [with generative AI],” said Jenny Nicholson, founder at creative AI agency Queen of Swords. The agency worked with wedding planning site Zola to develop its Split the Decisions chatbot last year.
The AI startup is being accused of content theft by Forbes, Wired, and The Shortcut. Legal action looms as tensions rise between media and AI companies over content scraping and attribution
Target’s new genAI-powered chatbot aims to boost associates’ efficiency: Walmart is also testing a genAI tool for workers as retailers look to technology to improve the in-store experience.
On today's podcast episode, we discuss how much time folks are spending with TVs and CTVs, how many ad dollars are going to both, and which of the streaming platforms will make the most from ads going forward. Tune in to the discussion with our analyst Ross Benes.
The year is nearly halfway over. As we prepare for H2, our analysts have been hard at work debating some very specific—and potentially unlikely—predictions that could play out in the coming months. Everything from retail media standardization to drone delivery to AI partnerships is at play over the rest of 2024. Here are some of our analysts' hottest takes.
2024 election sparks brand safety concerns: social media platforms face backlash over misinformation and weakened content moderation.
Ilya Sutskever launches Safe Superintelligence Inc., reflecting ex-OpenAI leaders’ trend toward AI safety amid commercial pressures in the industry.
Although there’s no industry standard yet for AI watermarking, Meta’s new audio AI detection tool could become a leader.
Smart tech enhances travel experience: Travelers say rental homes and hotel rooms with smart devices improve comfort, convenience, and sustainability. Adding these features can save properties money too.
Automation and AI are enhancing email marketing with improved personalization and efficiency.
Sharing its development and testing playbook could help close AI’s security gaps as businesses rush to adopt genAI.
Meta monetizes Messenger: Brands can now send messages to consumers who opt in, encroaching on SMS messaging platforms' value proposition.
In part two of this two-part podcast episode, we discuss some more predictions for 2024 that are too specific to be 100% certain about but could still come true, including: what happens next when measuring retail media, Starbuck's drone delivery pilot, and how the publisher/AI relationship will play out. Tune in to the discussion with our vice presidents of content Suzy Davidkhanian and Paul Verna and analyst Max Willens.
Apple is working to dominate in the AI race and might not be willing to play a fintech long game simultaneously.
TikTok unveils new AI tools: The platform streamlines content creation with avatars and dubbing, highlighting new challenges like deepfakes and transparency in years to come.