What are the important thing tendencies and takeaways from Cannes Lions 2026?

You’d anticipate AI to dominate Cannes Lions, and it did – on each stage, in each panel, from contained in the Palais to the perimeter occasions lining the Croisette. However beneath the headline subjects, the dialog had shifted since final yr.

If there was one overarching theme, it was how we may work with know-how transferring ahead, together with the ability of indie creators. Here is what stood out from one of many business’s largest occasions of the yr.

The inversion of authority

We reported on the rise of the creator CEO in our 2025 round-up, by which creators have been more and more driving the programming, partnerships, and conversations across the competition. This yr, their presence was inconceivable to disregard.

Alongside some genuinely considerate reporting, there was additionally a noticeable rise in social content material that prioritised entry over evaluation, usually providing little past superstar sightings, activation excursions and proof of attendance. An analogous sample emerged in some fringe programming, the place persona sometimes outweighed originality.

Paradoxically, this created much more area for creators, strategists, and journalists with genuinely recent views.

Rachel Lowenstein captured the shift completely: “Considered one of my key takeaways is that Lions is now a story of two festivals: the advertiser competition and the creator competition. As somebody who straddles each worlds as a tenured strategist and a content material creator, I felt like I used to be residing two lives all week. The business is at a fulcrum level the place it would not fairly know what to do with the inversion of authority creators are having on companies and types.”

That divide was maybe most noticeable between the conversations taking place contained in the Palais across the work being judged (the rationale Cannes Lions exists within the first place) and people taking place throughout the perimeter round activations, personalities and social content material. It was additionally an statement picked up by the creator of the Social Juice e-newsletter, Jaskaran Saini.

Tradition beats scale

Past the creator dialog, tradition was one other theme rising all through the week.
Whether or not it was discussions round fandom, girls creators, cultural intelligence or the position of unbiased companies, the message was remarkably constant. Scale alone is now not sufficient.

Talking throughout 5 periods, together with talks for UN Girls and the Unstereotype Alliance, Rachel Lowenstein argued that manufacturers must take girls creators severely as entrepreneurs and recognise influencing as an business that financially empowers girls, relatively than dismissing it as superficial.

Elsewhere, her periods with Reddit, Yahoo and Collins explored why fangirls sit on the centre of right this moment’s cultural conversations and why understanding fandom is more and more turning into a aggressive benefit for entrepreneurs. On the Palais, in partnership with the Effie LIONS Basis, she inspired younger creatives to unlock their unfair benefit by means of cultural intelligence.

Rory Sutherland echoed the sentiment at Collins Home, who noticed: “Businesses these days are obsessed by scale. Nothing scales higher than mediocrity.”

Collette Philip constructed on that argument, suggesting that consolidation and one-size-fits-all considering are eroding creativity. As bigger holding firms proceed to merge, unbiased companies have a chance to compete by means of distinctive considering, deeper cultural understanding and nearer relationships with the communities they serve.

AI made us crave human experiences

If AI dominated the conversations on stage, lots of the standout activations inspired folks to step away from their screens.

In distinction to final yr’s AI-led activations and countless branded merchandise, the pendulum swung again in the direction of tangible, sensory experiences.

Pinterest invited guests to create personalised journals in partnership with Adobe Categorical, alongside a sequence of tactile experiences together with tattoos, French pâtisserie and hair bleaching.

French sonic branding company Sixième Son took attendees away from the Croisette on its Sound of the Sea cruise, demonstrating how sound influences reminiscence, emotion, stress and decision-making. Somewhat than competing for consideration, it supplied one thing a lot rarer throughout competition week: a second of calm.

Sound additionally featured prominently at Stagwell Sports activities Seaside, the place Epidemic Sound created an AI-powered radio activation.

Curiously, there have been 4 totally different postcard activations alongside manufacturers that repeatedly encourage guests to create one thing bodily relatively than extra digital content material.

Networking acquired transferring

Alongside the primary devoted Lions Sport programme, morning health periods and sports activities clinics have turn out to be fixtures of the competition, whereas fringe occasions are more and more centred round walks, runs and motion relatively than conventional networking receptions.

Lady Hike CIC introduced girls collectively by means of strolling, whereas Alaina Crystal partnered with Chief to create a management expertise the place girls may visualise their future selves, share private management journeys and construct significant connections in a lower-pressure setting.

In opposition to the backdrop of AI-heavy discussions, many attendees appeared to be looking for slower, extra human methods to attach.

AI grows up

AI dominated the dialog as soon as once more this yr, however the dialogue itself had matured.

Final yr, many debates centred on how artistic companies ought to use AI and whether or not it threatens creativity. This yr, the dialog shifted in the direction of how AI can get rid of repetitive work whereas preserving the distinctly human abilities know-how cannot replicate.

Collette Philip’s takeaway from the talks was that AI ought to cut back the executive and mind-numbing manufacturing work that always will get in the best way of creativity, releasing folks to deal with concepts relatively than course of. A number of audio system additionally careworn the significance of continuous to nurture junior expertise relatively than assuming know-how will exchange the necessity for artistic growth.

Jon Williams, founder and CEO of The Liberty Guild, summed it up: “It appears to me the most important false impression popping out of Cannes is that AI is altering creativity. It is not. What it is actually altering is the place worth sits. And it is a large benefit for creatives. And because of this artistic judgment is turning into essentially the most worthwhile commodity. Some name it style. It is fairly rattling exhausting to immediate. What stays tough to duplicate are the issues which have all the time pushed desire: cultural relevance, emotional connection, distinctiveness and belief – and these are the powers of the artistic thoughts.”

The important thing takeaway?

Taken collectively, this yr’s competition felt much less like a celebration of know-how than a reminder of what know-how cannot exchange.

Whether or not that was fandom, trusted creators, bodily experiences or artistic judgment, the strongest conversations saved returning to distinctly human qualities.

AI could have dominated the agenda, however style, tradition and connection quietly turned the themes that lingered lengthy after the rosé had been packed away.