Postcards from Cannes – marketing leaders’ key takeaways – and what comes next

Excerpt from Mediashotz' Postcards from Cannes – marketing leaders’ key takeaways – and what comes next:

As all the big stands on the Croisette come down and the rosé glasses dry off, we’ve been asking some of the industry leaders who braved the heat last week for their post festival thoughts on Cannes Lions 2026.

AI, creativity, humanity and the quiet power of brands adopting a long-term view of their marketing mix were all topics up for grabs…

OSHRI RAZ, LIMELIGHT INC.:

“AI was impossible to ignore at Cannes this year, but the conversation has clearly moved on. It’s no longer being framed as a future opportunity. It’s becoming operational infrastructure, powering everything from bidding strategies to campaign optimisation and performance analysis.

“What feels more urgent now is the question of trust. As AI agents become more autonomous, the industry needs to think much harder about how verification, transparency and fraud prevention evolve alongside them.

“The same technology driving efficiency could also be used by bad actors to create more sophisticated bot networks and invalid traffic at scale. That raises an important question for what comes next: can our verification systems evolve fast enough to keep up?”