At Cannes Lions 2025, the advertising world’s most powerful marketers made it clear that artificial intelligence (AI) may be the most transformative tool at their disposal, but its use must be grounded in strategy, creativity and human instinct. Far from the hype of automation, marketers and creative veterans alike are calling for a measured approach that ensures AI enhances, rather than replaces, meaningful brand work.Marketers Want Usefulness, Not GimmicksAB InBev’s Global CMO Marcel Marcondes was among the first to offer a practical vision. Citing examples such as Michelob Ultra’s Shade Tracker, Marcondes argued for tech that creates real value. “The challenge for brands today is to be useful, not just visible,” he explained. Whether through utility-driven activations or immersive experiences, his emphasis was on blending AI’s capability with brand purpose and resisting the urge to innovate for innovation’s sake. “Don’t just advertise. Create moments,” he urged.Apple Warns Against Speed Over SoulFrom a brand synonymous with human-centred design, Apple’s Tor Myhren delivered one of the strongest endorsements of creativity’s central role. “If you use the same tool, you get the same work,” he warned, voicing concern that AI, if overused, could flatten creativity into sameness. Myhren maintained that breakthrough ideas do not begin with prompts but with a blank page, crafted by instinct and shaped by deep understanding. “Speed cannot replace soul,” he said.Creative Legends Call For Human DistinctionAdding weight to the argument, John Hegarty, co-founder of Bartle Bogle Hegarty in 1982, took a firmer tone. “AI creates averages,” he said. For him, AI’s greatest risk is not in its capacity to replicate, but in its tendency to homogenise. “Creativity is about difference, and difference comes from people, not data,” he said. His message is blunt but resonant — creativity must remain a human-led act of rebellion, not a formula fed into a system.In nearly all conversations around the Palais, it was evident marketers are open to AI and are already using it to streamline production, personalise experiences, and scale reach. But they are also wary of letting it define the work itself. As Cannes Lions shifts its lens from pure performance to brand experience, the need to maintain authenticity, emotion and originality has never been more urgent.AI may accelerate the process, but only people can create meaning. And in the race for relevance, it’s meaning, not automation, that will shape the best ideas.