Axios House: AI gives creativity a microphone, marketing leaders say

CANNES, France — AI is giving people more time, freedom and tools to exercise creativity, brand messaging executives said at an Axios event.

Why it matters: As AI floods feeds with automatically generated content, companies that use the technology to amplify humanity — rather than replace it — may stand out.

Axios' Sara Fischer and Kerry Flynn moderated the June 23 Expert Voices roundtable, which was sponsored by Cognizant Moment and Typeface.

5 big takeaways from the conversation:

1. "It's you plus AI," not the other way around, said Scott Weisenthal, Comcast Advertising's global head of marketing and insights. "Whenever we look at AI, it's never first. It's always added value."
2. AI can't replicate judgment and taste, said Snap Inc. ads platform vice president Shobha Diwakar, explaining that this applies not only to content but also to product development. Deciding "what you should build is so inherently human," she added.
3. Companies shouldn't limit themselves to streamlining existing workflows, said Dow Jones Factiva general manager Emma O'Brian. Focusing solely on "automating the path" risks turning AI into a tool for repetition rather than innovation, she said.
4. Email platform Beehiiv is seeing "open rates through the roof" because AI is "forcing us to be more creative," chief marketing officer Darren Chait said. "It's competition, like any free market."
5. Hilton is using AI to manage operational burdens, said Dan Reynolds, its senior vice president of global marketing: "Photography, video translations, copy, pricing — those are all really manual, big processes that were taking money and time away from telling really great brand stories."

Content from the sponsor's remarks:

There's been "a change in how we define and how we measure creativity," said Ben Wiener, global head of Cognizant Moment. The balance of "radical production of high-performance outputs … without losing our great soul" is top of mind.