Cannes Lions, AI Awards, and the End of the Finished Asset

Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity is next week. For the last few years there, you’d be hard pressed to find a conversation that didn’t include AI. This year, the awards themselves seem to be moving upstream from the finished work.

• → Creative Brand Lion will look at how brands use creativity across the company, including internal systems and processes.
• → AI Craft is being added across multiple Lions, focused on work where the idea, execution, or impact would not have been possible without AI.
• → Creative Data is being updated around work where data is essential to the creative idea and business impact.
• → Retail media is being added across Creative Strategy and Creative Data, reflecting shopper context and first-party data.

The work still matters, of course. Cannes is Cannes. But these changes point to an acknowledgment I think: the story is no longer just the finished asset.

In the traditional model, a brand told one version. Maybe a few versions. A film, a banner, a social post, a landing page.

With world models and generative creative, the story starts to look more like an infinite canvas.

The prospect won’t just be watching. They may be moving through it. Choosing a path. Changing the scene. Experiencing a version shaped by where they are, what they need, what they care about, or what just happened.

The input might be a keyboard, a controller, or your voice. Soon, your camera, glasses, or even your glance.

For advertisers, the input will always be context.

The finished asset may become less of an endpoint. The output becomes an experience, rendered and adapted in near real time. And if the story is dynamic, the context behind it will matter more than ever.