The AI hype may finally give way to something more interesting: taste.
At Business Insider’s “The AI Marketer” roundtable, held during Cannes Lions 2026 and presented by Bluefish AI, senior marketing leaders evoked the prevailing zeitgeist of the Cannes Lions Festival that human insight is essential and that taking more time to consider organizational change will lead to better outcomes.
The roundtable included marketing leaders from Autodesk, Accenture Song, Adobe, Babylist, Comcast, SharkNinja, Anduril, Hilton, Kimberly-Clark, Deloitte Digital, Zoom, Indeed, and Instacart.
The discussion highlighted a shift in how some big brands are approaching AI, with efforts rooted in thoughtful change management and infrastructure rather than accelerated adoption.
difference in taste
As leaders discussed creative workflows, the conversation turned to one key word in today’s tech and advertising worlds: taste.
“I think one of the things that’s really important is not to take your existing processes and layer AI on top of them. That’s actually a recipe for disaster and you start having a lot of problems,” said Dara Treseder, chief marketing officer at Autodesk.
“What outcomes are we trying to achieve, and what new systems should we design using humans and AI to get there?” she asked.
Treseder called this a “golden age for savvy marketers and creatives.”
“The work we do is an art and a science,” she said. “They have mastery of the tools, they have good taste, they know when and how to use AI, and most importantly they have the insight to know when not to use it.”
Executives argued that while AI dramatically speeds up content creation, it also increases the value of originality.
“I think the reason we’re talking about humans is because they give you a competitive edge.”
Theo Ricketts, vice president of global sales, marketing and digital transformation at Kimberly-Clark, said there is an advantage to everyone by adopting AI tools because it democratizes the playing field and allows small businesses to create content that looks just as good as larger companies.
“So where is our advantage?” he continued. “It takes humanity and the insights we bring to deliver better results than our competitors.”
Experimental phase ends
Michelle Crossan-Matos, chief brand and experience officer at SharkNinja, discussed how the company uses AI to coach customer service agents in real-time to help them interact with customers while measuring whether each interaction builds trust in the brand. The company also uses AI to identify recurring customer issues from thousands of service interactions, turning what was once anecdotal feedback into measurable insights product and marketing teams can act on.
“Call center agents know exactly how they contribute to our brand,” Crossan-Matos said. “We are currently building a campaign from our customer service team.”
Kim Storin, chief marketing officer at Zoom, views marketing as a two-way function that is no longer limited to a single insights team but is increasingly embedded throughout the organization.
“Our job is to be the voice of the market,” Stolin said.
That thinking is evident in how Zoom is reimagining its customer understanding internally. She described an effort to drive customer exposure across the team, rather than focusing feedback on a dedicated feature.
“It’s not just the customer insights team anymore,” she said. “Is the search team, the paid media team talking to customers?”
people, work and change
When the topic turned to marketing talent, the discussion became noticeably more frank.
James Whitmore, Indeed’s chief marketing officer, pointed to hiring data that shows marketing roles are shrinking faster than almost any other occupation.
“If you learn AI and learn how to demonstrate business impact and measure results, then no, there’s no risk. If you sit back and let things happen, then of course there is risk,” he said.
Jeff Miller, chief marketing officer at Anduril, furthered the conversation.
“Everyone is inspired about the power of AI and the future, but you have to learn the tools and prove that you have the sense. Then you can succeed and be successful in your role. But I don’t think that’s the case for most people who work in the marketing industry. I fundamentally don’t believe in that,” he said.
The group also acknowledged that change needs to come from CEOs in particular.
“Integration is [of AI] It needs to be cross-functional and always comes from the CEO. Sean Lyons, Accenture Song’s chief strategy officer, said it doesn’t really happen without CEO input.
“There’s so much efficiency in organizations that is based on fear…We’re trying to get teams to understand that they can do a better job this way,” he said.