At Cannes Lions this year, Digitas North America CEO Amy Lanzi had a blunt message for the advertising world. AI is misunderstood. It’s a marketing problem. And nobody’s doing enough about it.
She sat down with Decoder at Cannes — that annual ad industry gathering where everyone drinks rosé and talks up the next big thing. This year, that thing was AI. But Lanzi’s parent company Publicis ran an ad before the event calling out the false promises being made about AI in advertising. That got people talking.
Lanzi thinks AI isn’t being explained well. It’s not about replacing people. It’s about getting rid of busywork. “You can use AI to connect things and get things done,” she said. That frees people up to do actual creative work.
But students are panicking. Her daughter’s a junior in college, and she hears it from classmates. They’re worried AI will take their jobs before they even get started. Lanzi says that’s wrong. Agencies want young talent. “We want bright, curious hackers,” she said. “We need people.”
On whether AI gets good enough to replace human creativity, Lanzi’s answer was short: no. Not ever. She believes human minds produce stories people want to hear. AI helps you get to concepts faster or produce things more efficiently. But it’s not the source of the idea.
She gave an example. Product display pages on Amazon or Walmart. If a robot’s not making those, you’re doing it wrong. That’s everyday creative. But the big stuff? The real storytelling? That still needs humans.
What about the creator economy? Creators are now calling themselves marketers. Lanzi says the best creators build communities, not just audiences. They talk with their followers, not at them. That’s why in-real-life events are rising. People want connection.
She also touched on Instagram’s plan to make the app different for every user. Meta’s Adam Mosseri said it himself. Lanzi called it “terrible.” When asked what keeps them from going down that path, she said people switching away. “When brands stop putting media dollars there… you might realize they’re not buying what I’m selling.”
As for what’s next for Digitas? Lanzi says the agency is focused on “marketing systems” — making creative, media, and CRM work together so brands can grow faster. Not flashy. But that’s the point.
