Digiday at Cannes: AI hype, data overload and other takeaways from Cannes Lions 2025

In this episode of The Digiday Podcast at Cannes, Kimiko McCoy interviews Carly Carson, head of integrated media at PMG, to discuss key themes and experiences from the Cannes Lions festival. Carly highlights the focus on harnessing AI with a human touch, re-skilling talent to work alongside AI, and the prevailing innovation despite macroeconomic uncertainties. She shares insights on client pain points, the importance of translating the environment to clients, and PMG's approach to co-creating with platform partners to drive efficiency and incrementality. The conversation also covers the balance between networking and deal-making at Cannes, the significance of pre-event preparation, and the role of retail media networks in leveraging consumer data. Carly emphasizes the need to infuse human strategy into AI processes and the importance of data quality for effective technology use, noting the industry's focus on mid-funnel strategies and product innovation.